
Copyright N^_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



REGISTRATION OF CITY SCHOOL 
CHILDREN 

A Consideration of the Subject of the 
City School Census 



BY 

JOHN DEARLING HANEY, Ph. D. 



TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION, NO. 30 



PUBLISHED BY 

(Iitnt\\»tB (HaiiiQt, (Eolttmbta UntwrBttg 

NEW YORK CITY 

1910 



v^. 



N^ 






Copyright, 1910 
By JOHN DEARLING HANEY 



^C!.A^i85^95 



PREFACE 

In this monograph I have endeavored to trace the principles 
underlying the city school census, to discover the salient features 
of present systems of school censuses, to apply general laws to 
them, and to account for their failure or success. 

The historical presentation offers evidence, which is believed 
to be convincing, of the reluctant admission on the part of edu- 
cational boards of the inefficiency of our compulsory education 
laws and their so-called enforcement. 

The failure to see the proper function of the police in regard 
to school administration, is believed to be at the root of the 
difficulty, and the school census thus appears only as another 
point of approach from which the schools may control that 
element of the population which is most in need of school 
training. 

But that it must stop with even the attainment of that aim, 
the needs of modern social economy and the spirits of the boards 
that supervise the employment of under-age children and 
juvenile delinquents, emphatically deny. 

It is therefore toward the extended use of the registration of 
children that the author most eagerly looks and in which he sees 
the real economy of what still appears to many administrators 
of school systems as a futile expenditure of money. 

Throughout the work he has "endeavored to emphasize the 
possibility of (a) an effective school census in contradistinction 
to a general census; (b) a current or continuous census as dis- 
tinguished from a discrete census; and (c) an effective exten- 
sion of the census of children beyond the purposes of mere 
" compulsory education." 

In the hope that the suggestions herein contained may prove 
of value to those whose vision anticipates the growing complexity 
of municipal education, the author ventures to present them. 

JOHN DEARLING HANEY 
New York, March 1910 



ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Introduction — ^The Problem _, 

Page 

Growth of the municipal community 1 1 

Mode of dealing with its problems 1 1 

The laboratory method 1 1 

The problem of childhood 12 

Child Conference for Research and Welfare 13 

The present status of the registration of school children 14 

The dissertation 15 

Part I. Analytical 15 

Its divisions 15 

Method of approach 15 

Part II. Constructive 15 

Summary and Conclusions 16 

Definition of registration 16 

Relation to compulsory education 16 

Aim of registration 17 

Scope 17 

Chapter I. — Germany 

Early account of Schulpflictigkeit 18 

Modem treatment of the subject 18 

Laws concerning it 19 

School administration in Germany 20 

Political divisions 20 

Definition of terms 20 

School control 23 

Inspectors 23 

School deputation and school commission 24 

Rector 24 

The School Commission 24 

Size, Members, Powers, Duties 25 

School lists 25 

Admission to school 25 

Discharge 27 

Absence 28 

Parochial and evangelical schools 28 

Directions to parents 3° 

Neglect of school duty 31 

The school lists of absentees 32 

5 



6 Table of Contents 

Page 

Potsdam Regulations ,2 

The school lists ,3 

The Solingen Regulations 34 

The case of Hans Berg ,4 

Chapter II. — France 

Loi sur I'Enseignement Primaire Obligatoire 36 

Admission to school 36 

School lists 3 y 

Discharge 37 

Absence 38 

Private schools 30 

School neglect 30 

Loi sur rOrganisation de I'Enseignement Primaire 40 

Inspection 40 

Public schools 40 

Private schools 41 

School councils 41 

Letter of the Minister of Education on School Lists 42 

Chapter III. — England: London 
Report of the Education Committee of the London County Council, 

1909 46 

Status of Attendance in London 46 

The supervisory staff 46 

The Census 4^ 

Mode of canvass and punishment for illegal absence 47 

Statistics of attendance 48 

Relation of the census lists to compulsory attendance 49 

Annual versus biennial scheduling 50 

Where the book register fails 50 

Chapter IV. — Compulsory Education Laws and School Census 
Laws in the States of the United States 

Digest of the state laws concerning compulsory education 51 

Digest of the school census laws of the states 53 

Digest of the school census laws designed to control attendance 55 

Chapter V. — Philadelphia 

History of the school census law 60 

Object of the school census law in Philadelphia 61 

The census and the Bureau of Compulsory Education 61 

Scope of the school census 62 

Law of July, 1901 62 

The census and the enrollment 62 

The law in practice 63 



Table of Contents 7 

Page 

Census districts 64 

The ward division 64 

Map 65 

Statistics of school population in Philadelphia 66 

Value of the statistics 67 

Enumerators 68 

Attendance officers versus assessors 68 

Distribution 69 

Appointment 69 

Ability 7° 

Method of enumeration 7° 

Time 7° 

Cost 71 

Field work 7 ^ 

Two plans of work 72 

Instructions 7^ 

Reports • 73 

Co-operation of parochial schools 73 

Authenticity of the information 75 

Taking the census : Field work 76 

Conditions 76 

Work of enumerator C 77 

Work of enumerator R 79 

Work of enumerator W 81 

Work of enumerator W (second day) 83 

Cautions 83 

Time of year 85 

Efficiency of the system 85 

Report of principals and district superintendents 86 

Chapter VI. — Boston and Chicago 

Boston. The law 87 

Mode of enumeration 87 

Opinions in regard to the character of the census 88 

Value of Boston statistics 89 

Development of the statistics 89 

Chicago. The law 9° 

The census of 1908; a general census 9° 

Enumerators 9^ 

Field work 91 

Map of wards 9^ 

Method 93 

Instructions 94 

Statistics 93 



8 Table of Contents 

Chapter VII. — Providence and Detroit t, 

Page 

Providence. The law 96 

Conclusions of the Supervisor of the School Census 96 

Methods of enumeration 97 

Cost 97 

Field work 98 

The record 98 

Clerical stafi 98 

Co-operation of other departments 99 

Detroit. The law 99 

Its execution 100 

Enumerators 100 

Cost 100 

The law of census lists and enrollment loi 

Its failure in places other than Detroit loi 

Its failure in Detroit loi 

Co-operation of other departments loi 

Chapter VIII. — New York 

History of the School Census law 102 

The census of 1906 102 

Field work: Method 102 

Police as enumerators 103 

The statistical results 104 

Analysis of these 105 

The law of May 11, 1908 107 

The law examined and criticised 109 

Attitude of the authorities toward the census no 

Partial census of other departments not co-operating in 

Mobility of school population 112 

Chapter IX. — Summary 

Chief points of the foregoing systems 113 

Why the United States' systems have failed 114 

Value of an adequate registration of children 116 

Chapter X. — Recommendations 

Frequency of enumeration 117 

Bureau of enumeration 118 

Cost 119 

Time of year 120 

The enumerator 121 

The enumerator's record 122 

The superintendent's report 124 



Table of Contents 



Appendix p^^^ 

1. List of all children, Solingen, Germany 13 1 

2. List of all school children, Solingen 132 

3. School Commission's record of the admission of a pupil, Berlin. 133 

4. School Commission's certificate of admission issued to pupil, 

Berlin 134 

5. School Commission's report to the school of the admission of 

a pupil, Berlin 134 

6. Headmaster's and Mayor's report of the transfer of a pupil to 

another town, Solingen 135 

7. School Commission's report of transfer within city limits, Berlin. 137 

8. Headmaster's report on absences: Mayor's order for citation 

and warning to parents on citation, Solingen 137 

9. Mayor's order for punishment of delinquent parents with police 

certificate of execution, Solingen 139 

10. Mayor's order against delinquent parents by mail where personal 

service fails, Solingen 140 

11. Mayor's warning to delinquent parents, Berlin 140 

12. Mayor's repeated warning to parents that report illness, Berlin. 141 

13. Headmaster's report on absences to the School Commission, 

with the latter's voucher to the Headmaster or the School 

Police, Berlin 141 

14. Police entry of fine, and notice to delinquent parent, Berlin .... 143 

15. Order to parent to appear or pay fine in arrears, Berlin 144 

16. Order to levy on property of delinquent parent for non-pay- 

ment. Sheriff's return, Berlin 145 

17. Decree of imprisonment for non-payment, Berlin 146 

18. Police record of imprisonment in lieu of fine, Berlin 147 

19. Quarterly report of the Headmaster to the School Commission 

on school registration, Berlin 147 

20. Quarterly report by the Headmaster to the School Commission 

on pupils exempt from afternoon session to go to work, Berlin. 148 

21. Card used for indexing all pupils of Philadelphia schools 148 

22. Page of enumerator's street book, Philadelphia 149 

23. Weekly report of Philadelphia census enumerator 149 

24. Newport, R. I., census blank similar to that used in Providence, 

R. 1 150 

25. Instructions to enumerators, school census, New York City, 1906 151 

26. School census blank proposed for New York City by the Com- 

mittee on Physical Welfare of School Children and N. Y. 

Child Labor Committee for the school census of 1906 152 

27. School census for the Borough of Manhattan, City of New 

York, 1906 153 

Bibliography 154 

Acknowledgment 156 



REGISTRATION OF CITY SCHOOL 
CHILDREN 

INTRODUCTION 

The history of the last decade shows fundamental changes in 
the methods employed by investigators in economic fields and a 
constant widening of the areas of study of economic topics. The 
laboratory method of procedure has come to be recognized as 
the most accurate and satisfactory way of dealing with the 
propositions that confront the sociologist, and sociology has itself 
broadened until it includes all kinds of political study and 
reform. 

One phase of this, a phase partly induced by the modern ten- 
dency, yet unchecked, to migrate to the city as the readiest source 
of wealth, has been the development of the science of municipal 
administration. Throughout the world there has arisen a feel- 
ing that the work that the great city corporations have to per- 
form, cannot be left to the haphazard treatment of politicians 
and men untrained in the business of handling the enormous 
forces of municipal power. Just, for instance, as the United 
States government has come to recognize the advantage of using 
its consular positions as the best school for its future Ministers, 
and has made of the higher offices in the consular services civil 
service positions to be gained by examinations arranged to de- 
termine peculiar fitness for consular activity, so there has grown 
up a determination to have the municipal corporations admin- 
istered by men that have proved their capacity for this purpose 
in offices and positions of less importance. Men of wealth have 
set aside large funds for the purpose of facilitating study of the 
adequate management of public corporations, and private means 
have furthered the investigations of all kinds of public corporate 
waste. 

Specific evidence of those statements can be readily found. 



12 Registration of City School Children 

There is the fund of ten milHon dollars given by Mrs. Russell 
Sage for the study of the Improvement of Living Conditions; 
there is the fund established by Mr. Rockefeller for the study 
and treatment of the anemia of the poor whites of the southern 
United States; there is the fund that brought into being the 
New York Bureau of Municipal Research ; there is the fund con- 
tributed from various sources that supports that department of 
the New York Charity Organization Society known as the De- 
partment of Improvement of Social Conditions. 

Specific evidence of the results of activities fostered by these 
means can be as readily found. There is the Pittsburgh Survey, 
reported in the volumes of the Russell Sage Foundation, a sta- 
tistical investigation by experts into the living conditions of the 
city of Pittsburgh with its foreign population, its furnaces, its 
absentee landlords, its saloons, its liabilities and its schools. 
There is the exhibition in New York, at the 22d Regiment 
Armory Building, of the City Beautiful, with its illustrated dis- 
cussion of Tenement House Reform, Sewage Disposal and 
Water Supply, Location and Decoration of Schools, Tree Plant- 
ing, and Tuberculosis Prophylactics. 

The subjects of Housing, Child Labor, Compulsory Educa- 
tion, Charities, Playgrounds, Children's Institutions, and Fac- 
tory Inspection are being gone over anew with the laboratory 
treatment, to discover truths overlooked before, and better ways 
of handling the problems of wasteful living and the perplexing 
questions of our modern concentrated existence. The Commer- 
cial Club of Chicago, at an expense of $75,000, contributed by 
disinterested merchants and professional men, gets out a Plan 
of Chicago by the architect of the World's Columbian Exposi- 
tion of 1893, that that city may develop centers of intellectual 
life and civic administration so related as to give coherence and 
unity to the municipality. Dr. Edward T. Devine, in his study 
of Misery and Its Cause, inquires into the cases of 5,000 families 
in order to discover generic principles for the distribution of 
charitable funds. 

In Germany this activity has led to the new study of " Stadte- 
bau " which movement, reflected in America, finds expression in 
Eliot's " City Planning in America." A host of books bearing 



Introduction 1 3 

on the general problem of city construction ^ finds admirable 
support in numerous magazine articles all treating of the same 
subject. 

As the discussion ramified and the topics segregated, a broad 
area of unexplored territory relative to child Hfe appeared. It 
was discovered that, in the city, property grew so valuable for 
other purposes that it was not left vacant for the random play 
of children and that the child's territory was being gradually 
swept away from him and his life was narrowing and hardening. 
There sprang up The Playground Association. Similarly, it was 
found that the old negligent way of dealing with the juvenile 
delinquent was making work for the State instead of safeguard- 
ing it, and there arose the institution of Children's Courts. And 
then it came to be realized that, after all, society knew very little 
in a scientific way. about the social life of children, and there 
came into being the Child Conference for Research and Welfare. 

A few moments' consideration of the projects of this society 
will show how far the world has progressed from the stage at 
which its only dictum was that children " ought to be seen but 
not heard." The Conference proposes to publish reviews of the 
work of all movements relating to children throughout the world, 
and to bring together the workers from the dififerent movements 
for the welfare of children so as to produce a more unified and 
effective action. When it is understood that there are more 
that twenty-five journals, exclusive of educational periodicals, 
devoted to the study of childhood, and that in the United States 
alone more than seven hundred school laws are passed yearly, 
a better idea of the field of usefulness for such unity and har- 
mony is obtained. 

Before, however, any steps can be taken to minister to the 
necessities of the children, two questions must be answered : 
Where are they? and How many are there of them? Before 
these questions are answered, others are more or less premature. 



^ H. E. Deming: Government of American Cities. 
L. S. Rowe: Problem of City Government. 
F. C. Howe: The City: The Hope of Democracy. 
W. B. Munro: Government of European Cities. 
F. J. Goodnow: Municipal Government. 



14 Registration of City School Children 

Yet there is not a city in the United States, and very few in the 
world, that can give an accurate answer to the inquiries.- 

It has, accordingly, been my task to investigate some of the 
leading systems of enumeration of school children in cities, espe- 
cially in cities of the United States, to see what their cases 
present and what efforts the authorities have made toward a 
solution of the difficulties, and with what success they have 
achieved their results. In order to do this the more thoroughly 
and comprehensively, I have examined some of the European 
systems with a view toward ascertaining their merit and of find- 
ing out how far their procedure is adaptable to our own country. 

2 The report of the State Superintendent of Education of New Hamp- 
shire for 1908, is candid and interesting. He states, p. 155, " The first 
question which naturally occurs is: How large a percentage of the 
total number of children of school age are going to school ? The statutes 
of New Hampshire do not constitute any range of age as ' school age ' 
unless the census requirement, ' between the ages of 5 and 16,' consti- 
tutes school age." 

" Prior to 1895, the school census was usually taken by the assessors 
of taxes as a part of their duty. Since that date it has been made by 
the local truant officer or by some other agent appointed by the school 
board. Under the former arrangement the enumeration was entirely 
worthless since, at times, it would report scarcely one-half the children 
known to be in school. Under the present arrangement, although far 
from being strictly reliable, the returns are a vast improvement on those 
formerly made. They will never be what they should be until the public 
school system of the State as a whole is overlooked by men trained 
for the purpose, and who have no other business." 

There then follows a very confusing discussion involving figures drawn, 
without reference, from two tables, one in the front of the book, and 
one in the rear of it, and some from no evident source at all. The value 
of his argument is much impeached by this obscure discussion, but the 
intent of his remarks is clear and sound enough. He continues: " From 
all these considerations, I conclude that the enumeration is probably 
too small by at least 3,000 to 8,000. Setting it at the latter figure, we 
should have as an outside estimate 82,000 children between the ages 
of 5 and 16 in the State. Of these approximately 75,000 (i. e., 74,065) 
are accounted for. Where are the other 5,200? In the first place, a 
large number of them are children between the ages of 5 and 8, law- 
fully detained at home by their parents; another considerable number, 
probably less than a thousand, are in orphanages, the school for feeble- 
minded, the industrial school, and similar institutions. The remainder, 
precisely how large a number we cannot say, are doubtless in various 
stages of educational neglect." * * ♦ " The school census must be 
taken with greater promptness and greater thoroughness every year. 



Introduction 1 5 

The dissertation divides into two parts: I. Descriptive and 
expository with illustrative matter; and II. Critical and con- 
structive, suggesting plans of work and remedies for defects. 

Part I includes two sections: Foreign and Domestic. The 
Foreign section treats of the systems of Germany, France, and 
England. The German division shows a perfected centralized 
scheme with ramifications for procuring universal education by 
the rigid application of a compulsory education law whose 
foundation is the registration of children. It is illustrated by 
forms used by German municipal communities. The French 
section is briefer. It presents the more democratic but looser 
and less efficient French system. The English section, also brief, 
shows a system practically our own, except for the very impor- 
tant feature of the size of the executive force. The two former 
systems are national. The system given as English is really the 
London system. 

The domestic section of the dissertation breaks up into several 
parts, each dealing with a separate community, e.g., Philadelphia, 
New York, Providence, Chicago, and other western cities and 
States that have a systematic registration or semi-registration of 
school children, e. g., Michigan, Idaho, Nevada. 

The Philadelphia system is taken up in detail because the city 
in which it is applied is a large one, and has that kind of popula- 
tion that makes the application of a scheme of registration diffi- 
cult. This system was viewed at first hand by the writer who 
participated in the enumeration. 

This is followed by briefer expositions of the New York situ- 
ation, Providence experience, Chicago experience, etc., etc., with 
a view toward collating the various procedures and estimating 
their merit. 

Part II, the constructive portion, is a critical examination of 
the foregoing evidence, with a treatment of such topics as Census 
Districts ; Census Takers, their appointment, equipment, and 

It is recommended that all school boards use the card method, entering 
all the data for each child upon the same card, the card then to be filed 
away for use in subsequent years. The census is the only way by which 
we can establish our base line and ascertain just how many and what 
children we have to deal with. The department of public instruction 
must obtain more complete reports from all classes of institutions dealing 
with minor children, and the reports must be better classified than 
they are now." 



T 6 Registration of City School Children 

management by a central bureau ; Relation of public, private, and 
parochial schools by means of census ; Uses of the census for 
purposes other than compulsory education, e. g., Health Inspec- 
tion, Factory Inspection, Tenement Inspection, Controlling the 
Physical Welfare of Children, Improving the Condition of the 
Poor, etc. 

The industrial growth of the American community as well as 
the tendency of the American youth to be his own master at as 
early an age as possible, and the increased standard of living, 
are all tendencies that urge the child into the labor market. 
With these forces the compulsory education laws and the laws 
against the employment of under-age children in factories, mines, 
shops, etc., wage ceaseless war, and the registration of the school 
population is a matter of more and more pressing concern to 
those that look toward the enforcement of the laws as the founda- 
tion of civic righteousness. 

For the purpose of our discussion, therefore, " registration " 
will, in general, mean the getting of the name of the child on the 
books of the school so that he is not thereafter lost sight of 
by the educational authorities until, by age or schooling, he is 
no longer within their jurisdiction. 

It is true that this is usually attempted in one effort by com- 
munities that take a census of school children, but it does not 
have to be so. A child may be registered as well through the 
action of the attendance office that has picked him up on the 
streets, as by an enumerator that seeks from his parent the data 
of his Hfe history. But for the sake of brevity, succinctness, 
and definiteness of discussion, this dissertation is mainly limited 
to those projects made in a concerted way to discover the num- 
ber of children of and approaching school age for which the 
community feels responsible. 

But because the matter of enumeration so nearly concerns the 
matter of the enforcement of the compulsory education laws, 
some digressions must be allowed on the heads of truancy and 
methods of checking absenteeism. 

The registration of school children has for its aim several well- 
defined objects. As conducted by foreign governments, where 
army service is compulsory, the registration of school children 
has an imperative meaning that instantly makes it one of the 
most serious duties of the state, and gives it so definite a goal 



Introduction 1 7 

that the whole development of the system, with its accompanying 
information, is most rigorously prosecuted and guarded. Noth- 
ing is left to chance. 

In the United States the registration of school children has 
come to mean, as performed by the state governments, the deter- 
mination of an adequate basis of taxation or apportionment,^ 
and as performed by the municipal authorities, part of the fol- 
lowing : 

1. An enumeration of those at the time, or soon to be, under 
school authority ; 

2. A location of these; 

3. A brief description of them : 

a. For the educational authorities 

So that the compulsory education law may be 
enforced ; 

b. For the health authorities 

So that the laws of public and private hygiene 
may be enforced ; 

c. For the charitable authorities 

So that relief may be offered to the needy, the 
hungry, and the lonely and neglected; 

d. For the child labor bureaus 

So that the factory inspection, and the provisions 
of the child labor laws may be carried out. 
There is no municipality in the United States at present that 
takes a census with all these things in view. The isolation of 
the school census is its vulnerable point. Neither enumerators 
nor directors know exactly what they are after, and their ques- 
tions are rather random, and their published figures frequently 
mere iteration or more or less unprofitable tabulation. 

^ E. P. Cubberley, v. School P'unds and Their Apportionment. Ch. 
IX. Coltimbia University Contributions to Education, No. 2. 



CHAPTER I 
GERMANY 

History 

The material in regard to Schulpflichtigkeit and Schulzwang, 
or the duty of going to school and the power of the state to 
compel attendance at school, is, in regard to Germany, very 
voluminous. 

But the material concerning the method of registering children 
is so intimate a part of the general German system of the regis- 
tration of population, and the relation between the School Police 
and the general body of police is so close and so generally 
assumed by the German writers on the subject of School Atten- 
dance, that information concerning the registration of children 
has had to be got at indirectly by original pamphlets and blanks 
prepared for the instruction of parents and school boards, and 
secured by the writer after considerable wrestling with the con- 
servatism of German bureaucracy. 

There are, however, certain works that, in treating of the 
whole matter of school attendance, make reference to the regis- 
tration of school children. Among the first of these is that of 
Victor Cousin in the early part of the last century. Yet in 
the translation of this in 1835, Sarah Austin writes: "I have 
always been astonished that no researches have been made by 
any German into the antiquity of Schulpflichtigkeit in the several 
parts of the empire. The only work I know that touches on the 
subject is that of J. K. F. Schlegel ' Ueber Schulpflichtigkeit 
und Schulzwang, 1824.' " 

Since this report, and especially since the formation of the 
present empire of Germany, the works have become much more 
numerous. One of these is the " Organization und Unterichts- 
folge der stadtischen Volkschulen in Deutschland," by Emil 
Schwartz, Berlin, 1907 (Rheinhold Kiihn). This work gives an 
idea of the general laws of the kingdoms and the empire that 
now control the matter of school attendance in Germany. He 
says, in Chapter I, on School Duty in the German Federated 
18 



Germany 19 

States: In the largest state, in Prussia, these regulations (con- 
cerning the beginning and ending; lengthening and shortening 
of the time at school), are determined on the basis of the Charter 
of January 31, 1850, and of the General Law of May 2, 1794, 
Part 2, Title 12. According to Art. 21, of the former, parents 
and those in parental relation must not allow their children and 
wards to go without the instruction which is prescribed for the 
public common school. From the General Law, the following 
paragraphs apply: "Sec. 43. Every inhabitant who cannot or 
does not wish to provide the necessary instruction for his children 
in his own house is constrained, after the fifth year is passed, 
to send his children to school." " Sec. 44. Only on the authority 
of the magistrate and the clerical school superintendent, may a 
child be withheld from school for a longer time or be removed 
from the instruction of the school for some time on account of 
intervening obstacles." " Sec. 46. The school instruction must 
be continued until the child has attained, according to the inven- 
tory of his pastor, that knowledge necessary to every qualified 
person of his rank." These regulations were established for the 
whole Prussian monarchy by the Cabinet Order of the 14th 
of May, 1825, hence for those parts of the country in which the 
general law had not, up to that time, obtained. Similar regu- 
lations occur in the cases of other German states. In the king- 
dom of Saxony school service is regulated by the school law of 
April 26, 1873; in the Empire, by the order of April 18, 1871. 

For Prussia, however, some of the earlier regulations con- 
cerning the control of attendance can be seen from the trans- 
lation from Cousin mentioned before. Quoting from the Entwurf 
eines allgemeinen Gesetzes ueber die Verfassung des Schul- 
wesens im Preussischen Staate, Berlin 1819, he says: 

" Every year after Easter or Michaelmas, the committees and 
municipal authorities shall make an inquiry concerning all the 
families lying within their jurisdiction who have notoriously not 
provided for their children that private education which they are 
bound to give them in default of public education. For this 
purpose they shall make a census of all the children of age to 
go to school. The baptismal registers and those of the civil 
authorities shall be open to them at the commencement of every 
year, and the police must afford them every possible facility 
and assistance. 



20 Registration of City School Children 

" If parents and master neglect sending their children punc- 
tually to school, the clergymen must first explain to them the 
heavy responsibility which rests upon parents; after that, the 
school committee must summon them to appear before it and 
address severe remonstrances to them. No excuse whatever 
shall be deemed valid (exclusive of the proof that the education 
of the child is otherwise provided for) except: certificate of ill- 
ness signed by the medical man or the clergyman ; the absence 
of the parents and masters which had occasioned that of the 
children ; or the want of necessary clothing, funds for providing 
which had not been forthcoming. 

" If these remonstrances are not sufficient, coercive measures 
are to be resorted to. The children are to be taken to school by 
an officer of the police, or the parents are to be sentenced to 
graduated punishments or fines, and in case they are unable to 
pay, to imprisonment or to labor for the benefit of the parish. 
The punishments may be successively increased but are never to 
exceed the maximum of punishment of correctional police. 

" The fines are to be awarded by the school committee, to be 
collected if necessary with the aid of the police and paid into the 
funds of the committee. The execution of the other punishments 

rests with the police. If all these punishments are found 

ineffectual, a guardian shall be appointed especially to watch 
over the education of the children." 

Definitions 

Before any English reader can get a definite idea of the con- 
stitution of the German school system and its method of con- 
trolling the registration of children, he must become acquainted 
with some of the more frequently used terms of the various 
writers. For the purpose of making the subsequent discussion 
clearer, some definitions are here inserted : 

Prussia is divided into 14 provinces. Each of these provinces 
is divided into departments called Regierungs-Bezirke. Each 
of these is subdivided into Kreise, and each of these into Ge- 
meinde. Each department has a council, called a Regierung, with 
a president. The province has an Ober-prasident. In every 
province, under the direction of the Ober-prasident, is an insti- 
tution dependent upon the Ministry of Public Instruction and in 
some sort a copy of it. As the Ministry is divided into 3 sec- 
tions (Instructional, Ecclesiastical, Medical), so the Provincial 
consistorien are divided. The first, for ecclesiastical affairs is 
the Consistory, properly so-called, (Consistorium) ; the second,. 



Germany 2 1 

for public instruction, (Schulcollegium) ; the third, for pubHc 
heahh, (Medicinal collegium). 

The mechanism of the administration of popular instruction 
is in a few words as follows : Primary instruction belongs mainly 
to the Regierung and the Gemeinde. Every Gemeinde must 
have a school, and the pastor is in virtue of his office the inspec- 
tor of this school. Associated with him is a committee of adminis- 
tration and of superintendence, composed of some of the most 
considerable persons of the parish, and called Schulvorstand. In 
the urban parishes where there are several schools of an order 
higher than that of the country schools, the magistrates form a 
higher committee which presides over all these schools with their 
several committees and arranges them into one harmonious sys- 
tem. This committee is the Schuldeputation or Schulcommission. 
There is, moreover, in the chief town of the Kreis, another inspec- 
tor, whose authority extends to all the schools of that circle 
and who corresponds with the local inspectors and committees. 
This inspector is almost always a clergyman. His title is 
Kreisschulinspector. He corresponds with the Regierung of 
every Bezirk through the president of that Regierung. The 
Regierung includes several councillors, among others a special 
councillor for primary schools, a Schulrath. He is a paid inspector. 
He keeps alive, by inspection, the zeal of the Schulinspectoren 
and Schulvorstande and the Masters. He is the true director 
of primary instruction in each Regierung. He is responsible 
to the Ministry of the Interior, and to the Minister of Public 
Instruction. 

Gemeindeschule is another name for Volkschule and is gen- 
erally used in Berlin instead of Volkschule. It is not a parochial 
school in our sense of the term. Gemeine or Gemeinde originally 
meant any community of persons. It is now chiefly used to 
express the smallest divisions of Church and State, the two most 
important communities in the world. Town — or Village — 
Gemeinen have, as parts of the State, their Burgermeister or 
Schulze ; as parts of the Church, their Pfarrer. — See Krug, Phil. 
Lex. A Gemeinde is the administrative unit of Prussia, as the 
Commune is of France, and the Parish or Township of England. 
The chief magistrate of each Gemeinde is the Schulze, whose 
functions are, in some degree, similar to those of the French 



2 2 Registration of City School Children 

Maire. The Schulze is assisted generally by two Schoppen. They 
form the village court of justice for the punishment of slight 
offences. The immediate superior of the Schulze is the Landrath 
or Kreisdirector. 

A Kreis is the lowest or smallest division of territory for 
purposes of administration of state laws. A Kreis usually includes 
2 or 3 cities and the intervening country, but a single large 
city may constitute a Kreis in itself. A Kreis contains an inde- 
terminate number of Gemeinden. There are 345 Kreise in the 
Kingdom of Prussia — the chief magistrate is the Kreisdirector 
or Landrath, appointed by the government. Under him are 6 
deputies of the Kreis chosen by the electors, who are taken in 
equal number from the owners of land and the inhabitants of 
the towns and rural parishes. Each of these classes sends 2 
deputies. 

A Regierungs-Bezirk contains a number of Kreise, varying 
firom 4 to 22. There are 28 Regierungen in Prussia. The word 
Regierung is used to express both the district and the body by 
which it is governed, more accurately called Regierungs-Col- 
legium. This council or board, consists of a president, vice- 
president, several councillors (Regierungs-rathe), assessors, and 
other subordinate officers. 

Magistrat. This term is frequently met in the documents and 
blanks concerning school administration, and is apt to be mis- 
leading to the English reader. It is a name applied to the city, 
or, district school authority, e.g., the Stadtschulrat (City Super- 
intendent) and one or two others appointed to work with him. 
It seems to correspond, in general, to an Executive Committee 
of the American " Board of Education." It is not to be under- 
stood in the sense of " magistrate," as police magistrate. 

Vorstand. This term is likewise confusing, as it is used in 
dififerent senses. There is a Vorstand for each school as well 
as for each city or district. For the school the Vorstand may 
be the Rector, corresponding to the American " principal." For 
the Kreis, it is, on the supervision side, the Kreisinspector or 
Schulrat ; on the general management or business side, it is the 
Kreisinspector or Schulrat and various other persons represent- 
ing various interests appointed for the purpose ; e.g., representa- 
tives of the City Council, or of the churches, or of the citizens. 



Germany 23 

In the country, the most important member is always the pastor, 
together with the Ortsrechter or Dorfschulze (Mayor) and from 
2 to 5 representative citizens. It is doubtful whether the term 
is properly applied to the Rector alone. It is rather the gov- 
erning body corresponding to our " Board of Education." 

School Control 

Das " Offentliche Unterichtswesen im Deutschen Reiche." by 
Dr. A. Petersilie, Leipzic, 1897 (C. L. Hirschfield) is a very 
complete work on the subject of the public school system of 
Germany. After indicating the rise of school codes in the various 
states of Germany after the Reformation, he gives the imperial 
attitude toward the subject of school law in the following words: 
" A school law must include primarily all schools collectively, 
public and private, lower and higher, with the exception of the 
professional schools and universities, which do not belong in 
a school law." It is this universality of the school law that, in 
Germany, gives it its tremendous effect. He then continues with 
an account of the various supervisory bodies and governing boards 
that control the school situation in Germany: The chief officer 
is the Minister of spiritual, instructional, and health affairs. His 
authority is general and supreme. The Provincial Schulkollegium 
has immediate control of the higher schools, but has supervision 
of the whole pedagogical system of the lower. The council for 
the Regierung, which is a church and school division, oversees 
the whole lower school system of the regierungs-bezirk,*including 
the private schools. The school committee, or schulrat, must be 
summoned once a year by the president of the regierung to a 
meeting of the Provincial Schulkollegium. 

In Part 2 the author takes up the matter of inspection and 
points out in detail the duties of the various inspectors. We are 
concerned mainly with the following : 

Kreisschulinspectoren. To these belongs the duty of over- 
seeing all " inward and outward affairs." All officers of the 
Lokal (a certain prescribed minor district), particularly the 
inspector, school boards, and teachers must obey their rulings 
until the inspectors are superseded by the Regierung. They must 
hold district and school conferences, watch the private schools, 
and nourish the Sunday schools and the Continuation schools. 



24 Registration of City School Children 

Concerning attendance they have to direct particular attention 
to the careful performance of the regulations in regard to school 
neglect. They are obliged in their tours of inspection to examine 
the attendance lists and punishment lists, the enactments of the 
Lokal inspectors, the school vouchers, and to supervise the 
" magistrats " and district commissions (Deputationen and 
Commissionen). 

Where it appears necessary, they can order produced before 
them for revision, the punishment lists and the Vacatbeschein- 
ungen before further action is taken by the local police authorities, 
but these lists must be at once returned. 

It is the office of the Lokal inspector to keep up enthusiasm 
for school work and so to arrange matters that no time is lost. 
He also inspects regularly the absent-list and allows no neglect 
in this regard to go unpunished. 

The School Deputationen for cities (School Vorstande for 
outlying districts) are regarded as essential organs of the state 
overseeing authority. Created in 1811, they are made up accord- 
ing to the size of the place : From one to three " magistrats " ; 
as many of the city council (Verordnetenkollegium) ; an equal 
number of men educationally informed; and a representative 
of the private schools. 

We shall hear a good deal about their importance in the con- 
trol of attendance later. 

The Rector or Head-teacher is subject to the school Vorstand, 
the organ of the School Deputation, and to the Lokal inspector 
who is a member of the Vorstand. The rector admits children 
to school, maintains the chief books of the school, controls the 
class lists, and supervises the matter of school neglect (of pupils 
left or not appearing) in accordance with the Instructions for 
School Commissions. 

The School Commission 

In order to give a definite idea of the function of the school 
commission, the writer has translated the sections of a pamphlet 
issued for Berlin, in 1907, entitled, " Instruktion fiir die Schul- 
kommissionen hiesiger Residenz," but only those passages that 
concern the keeping track of school children are given in full. 
The others are summarized. 



Germany 2 5 

1. The school commissions are, each in its own part of the 
city, the local organs of the city school deputation, for all affairs 
not given over to the school boards (Vorstanden). 

2. School Inspection Districts. 

3. Members of the Commissions : The school commission con- 
sists of the chairmen of those city districts that are included 
in the district of the commission, and of a number of citizens 
of the district (among whom there is always a lay member of 
the respective school boards, and the head-teachers of the schools 
of the district), and the chairmen of those private elementary 
schools supervised by the committee in which children are 
instructed at the cost of the community. 

4. Size : in the smaller districts, not less than 20 ; in the greater 
not more than 25. They are selected for 3 years by the city 
council, and are subject to the ratification of the " magistrat." 

5. Officers. 

6. Re-election. 

7. Resignation, only by permission from the deputation. 

8. Duties of the Chairman. He appoints those that make up 
the lists of children that must go to school. Neglect of duty by 
the members leads to charges before the deputation. 

9. Journal of his office. 

10. Reports signed. 

11. Meetings. 

12. Quorum, 

13. Votes. 

14. Jurisdiction of the Chairman. His authority is valid in 
all proper cases. 

15. Messengers. 

16. Duties of the commission: The making and executing the 
Hsts of children of the district that ought to go to school. (18) 
Admitting children to the gemeinde schools, taking into account 
the private elementary schools in which children are maintained 
at public cost. Controlling school attendance. The granting 
of supplies. 

17. Assignment to school. The commission has no authority 
to place children in middle schools, Lutheran schools, or Jewish 
schools, or grant partial or absolute dispensation from school 
instruction. Those commissions having Catholic or evangelical 
schools in their districts, must decide whether the admission shall 
be to one or the other, in accordance with the regulations included 
in the Appendix to these instructions (Cf. App. 2) post. 

18. School lists. In accordance with the direction of 16, the 
reports of police, in regard to changes of address, shall be sent 
quarterly, by the school deputation to the school commission. 

19. Admission into school. The General Law, Sec. 43, Tit. 12, 
decrees : — Every inhabitant that cannot or will not look after 



26 Registration of City School Children 

the instruction of his children in his own home, is compelled 
to send them to school after the 5th year. On the school com- 
missioners there devolves the duty of convincing themselves 
whether this legal requirement, which, for Berlin, reads, " to 
send them to school after the 6th year," is carried out by the 
residents, and to see to it, that no child, not mentally deficient, 
blind, or deaf, that has completed its 6th year, remains without 
instruction. Control over the resulting disposal of the children 
in public or private schools, must be made after careful investi- 
gation by the commission, on the basis of the aforesaid lists, and 
the parents that have neglected their legal duty are to be admon- 
ished to fulfil it. If this admonition is ineffectual, the children 
are to be entered in school in due form by the commission, and 
the parents are to be informed of it by appropriate resolution to 
that efifect. If the children do not then appear in the indicated 
school, the punishment of the parents on account of the remiss- 
ness, in accordance with the Regulations concerning the Consti- 
tution and Punishment of School Absences, ensues. 

20. Entering a child in the gemeinde school. 

21. Time of admission. Except for orphans, who may be 
admitted at any time, children are admitted only twice a year, 
at Easter and Michaelmas. They divide the children according 
to the available space among the schools of their district so that 
no class in the upper grades exceeds 60, and, in the lower grades, 
70. If there are both gemeinde and private elementary schools, 
at the disposition of a commission, consideration is first given 
to the filling of the gemeinde school. In order to keep the 
commission currently informed of the attendance at the various 
schools, the head teachers and principals are to send to the 
school commission copies of the quarterly lists sent to the school 
deputation, Feb. i, May i, Aug. i, Nov. i. Form E. (Cf. App. 
19.) If the commission believes the school too full, it reports 
this fact to the deputation. 

22. .When a child is brought for admission to school, the com- 
mission will make out Form A (App. 3), according to the state- 
ments of the individual applicant at the iime, and submit to the 
latter at the same time a copy of the instructions with the order 
to take note of the same for its own interest. * * * The certificate 
of application (Schulzuweisungsschein) Form B (App. 4), and 
the notice to the head teacher or principal, Form C (App. 5), 
are to be filled out by the commission. The former is sent to 
the parents ; the latter, to the teacher. 

23. Roll Books, etc. Of those children that are sent to a 
private elementary school, a roll book is kept by a committee 
especially appointed for each of these schools so that on the 
basis of it the accounts of the principal may be, by the assigned 
committee, with the guidance of the roll book, audited and at- 



Germany 2 7 

tested. The certificates of children assigned to private schools 
are, before being sent to the parents, to be submitted to the 
member of the committee charged with the maintenance of the 
roll book for the execution thereon of Note a, Form B. (App. 4.) 

24. Discharge from school. If parents wish to take their 
children out of school on account of removal, they are to give 
notice of that fact to the head teacher, or principal, 14 days 
before their removal, or as soon as the new residence is resolved 
upon b}^ them. The principal, or head teacher, endorses the 
certificate of application with the name and address of the chair- 
man of that school commission into whose district the aforesaid 
are going, and then hands to them the certificate with the direc- 
tion to betake themselves for the further schooling of their 
children to the chairman of the commission indicated by him. 
At the same time he fills out Form D (App. 7) and sends it to 
the chairman of the commission of his district for transmission 
to the commission concerned. If the discharge concerns a child 
who, up to that time has attended one of the private schools 
mentioned in 16, then, before the certificate is handed over to 
the parents, there must take place a cancelling of the name of 
the child in the roll book. (Note b. Certificate of Application, 
Form B.) (App. 4.) The commission to whom the certificate 
for re-entry of the child is to be presented must see that the 
above regulation is carried out. If the note of cancellation 
(item b) is not filled out, the re-admission of the child is not 
tO' be retarded thereby. The original is to be sent back to the 
former commission after the child has been admitted. 

25. Half-day sessions. Every child over 12 that demonstrates 
to the head teacher, or school principal, that he possesses a 
" work-book " (Sec. 128 of the Industrial Ordinance of June 21, 
1869) is to be allowed to dispense with afternoon instruction 
without further condition. The ensuing dispensation is to be 
noted on the Certificate of Application (q. v.) by the head 
teacher or principal under a declaration of the reason therefor. 
Every quarter, on Feb. i. May i, Aug. i, and Nov. i. the 
head teachers and principals must forward to the school com- 
missions, according to Form F, Appendix 20, an exact list of 
the children so emancipated and the commission sends them, 
according to prescribed form, to the school deputation. Applica- 
tions for dispensation from afternoon instruction as well as total 
dispensation from school instruction of children working in com- 
mercial establishments and factories, are. if they fail before the 
school commission, to be received by the deputation. 

26. Those unfit to attend the regular day school. If a school 
commission discover any blind, deaf, dumb, or feeble-minded 
children of school age in their district, they must inform the 
school deputation of it, and the latter will enter an order whether, 



28 Registration of City School Children 

to these children, instruction is to be imparted and how it is to 
be effected. 

27. Absence and confirmation. The control of school attend- 
ance of children entered in school, and the punishment of ab- 
sences as well as attendance at the instruction for candidates for 
confirmation and punishment for absence from the same, are 
governed by the stipulations of the pamphlet on the Regulation 
of School Attendance, etc. (Cf. post). Control of school at- 
tendance includes children of all creeds. In order to accomplish 
these aims, the houses of the school district are to be appor- 
tioned in such a way that the inhabitants of a definite number 
of houses may be supervised by one member. 

(Signed) Hobrecht 
Magistrat of the local capital 

Berlin, Nov. 30, 1874. and imperial residence. 

There then follow three appendices, two of which are here 
given, the third, consisting of blank forms, appears in the Ap- 
pendix at the end of this volume. 

Appendix 2 

directions for entering children into evangelical or 
catholic schools 

The edict for the year 1861, published as a guide for admitting 
children to evangelical and catholic schools, October 12, 1863, in 
No. 43 of the City Record, and later in Nos. 44, and 45 of 1861, 
and No. 5, of 1865, is hereby abrogated, and in its stead there 
are herewith collectively imparted for exact observance by all 
those persons interested in the placing of children under the 
local civic and school administration, the following legal pre- 
scriptions, which are in conformity with the Royal School Com- 
mission for the Province of Brandenburg, in admitting children 
to evangelical and catholic schools : 

General Regulations 

I. There is to be maintained the fundamental principle that, 
according to the General Declaration of Nov. 21, 1803 under 
amendment of the prescriptions of the General Law, Part II, 
Title 2, sec. 76: 

Legitimate children shall each be instructed in the religion of 
the father, and 

As long as the parents are agreed upon the religious instruc- 
tion to be imparted to their children, no third party shall have 
any right to oppose them therein. 



Germany 2 9 

2. The legitimate father is, according to the law, the head of 
the family, and, as such, he only is legally authorized and em- 
powered to give to boards and school principals, at all admissions 
to school^ definite directions whether his child shall enter an 
evangelical or catholic school. 

3. So long as the father lives, if he has expressly conditioned 
the admission, there shall be no change, no matter what religion 
the father may have. 

Special Regulations 

4. If the admission of a child to school concerns the religion 
of the father, no special regulation is required. 

5. Should a child be directed to a school whose confessional 
character diverges from the creed of the father, and the child 
thus be led toward another religion than that of the father, it is 
to be strictly observed at such admission to school by all those 
interested, that the definite expressed statement relative thereto 
shall be made by the legitimate father of the child and the state- 
ment recorded. 

6. In the case of every admission it is left to the province of 
the school commission to decide whether, in establishing the cor- 
rect name of the child, a baptismal record is necessary. 

7. It is necessary that every applicant representing himself to 
be the legitimate father must establish his identity. This certi- 
tude must be secured without unnecessary inconvenience to the 
applicant, either by recognition of him by known persons, or in 
any other convincing way. 

8. No other member of the family, not the mother herself, so 
long as the head of the family is living, is permitted to apply 
for the admission of a child to school in any other kind of school 
than that of the creed of the father. 

9. If the legitimacy or identification mentioned under 7 is ac- 
cordingly established, the admission to school according to 
the father's request must immediately follow. If any doubts 
of such legitimacy or identification which cannot be imme- 
diately discharged by the respective civic registrar, arise, a report 
is to be made forthwith to secure further lawful action by laying 
the matter before the school deputation. 

10. If the father of the child proposed for admission is dead, 
the admission must be under all circumstances to that " confes- 
sion " to which the father belonged. In this absolute limitation, 
neither the guardian nor mother of the child may make any 
change. There are only two exceptions, as follows : 

a. No consideration can be given, according to the General 
Statutes Part II, Title 2, sec. 81, to a change of creed on the 
part of the father on his death-bed. 



30 Registration of City School Children 

b. The child, if he has been educated by the father for at least 
one year before the latter dies, in a creed other than that to 
which he himself belonged, will retain his condition. Hence the 
child pursues the confession-school selected by the father and 
in such a case continues the creed chosen by his father until 
after his 14th year. 

11. After the death of the father there occurs, accordingly, at 
every new admission, a firmer and firmer establishment of the 
religion of the deceased. 

12. After the 14th year it is in the sole choice of the children 
which religion they wish to acknowledge (Gen. Stat. Pt. II, 
Tit. 2, sec. 84). 

13. lUegitimate children are to be educated in the faith of the 
mother until they have reached 15. 

14. Those persons that adopt a child deprived of parents, suc- 
ceed to all rights concerning such children possessed by parents 
of the blood ; hence, also, the authority to decide in what religion 
such children shall be educated (Gen. Stat. Pt. II. Tit. 2, sec. 
755, and sec. 104 of the Appendix to the same). 

In Appendix 3 there are instructions for parents and foster- 
parents " of children of school age, concerning the duty of attend- 
ing school, in general; attendance at the common (volk) school; 
half-day school ; instruction for candidates for confirmation ; and 
the legal punishment for the neglect of school." But as many 
of these sections duplicate the information given before, only 
those parts that seem worthy of more explicit mention will be 
given complete. Parents are warned that, in Berlin, 6 is the 
age for beginning school, and that April ist and October ist 
are the registration days, although February ist and August ist 
are the days on which the prospective admittance of the child 
is to be announced. Vaccination certificate and baptismal cer- 
tificate must accompany the application. 

Discharge from school. If a child already admitted to school 
must leave because of removal, the parents or relatives must 
proceed as before indicated, and are warned that immediately 
after taking up the new abode they must place the child in the 
new school and give over the school certificate to the head-teacher. 

Certain of the exemptions in regard to half-day school are 
important, as they show how the authorities keep track of those 
that are not attending the full session. 

" An exemption from afternoon instruction can be permitted 
only to children that have completed 12 years and only in the 



Germany 3 1 

following cases : a. When they are employed in a factory ; b. when 
they are employed in a distant place. For a. If parents wish to 
allow their child to be employed in a factory, they must secure 
for it, from the police, a " work-book " and show it to the head- 
teacher or school principal. On the evidence of this there may 
ensue the exemption of the child from afternoon instruction with- 
out further concern on the part of the teacher. For b. For 
the employment of children in a place of occupation not a factory 
in a legal sense, a work-book is not necessary." 

" The dispensation from afternoon instruction takes place only 
if: 

1. The child has, according to the certificate of the head-teacher 
and the respective school board, attended regularly and has 
attained the requisite knowledge ; 

2. The circumstances of the parents, according to the deposition 
of the president of the district, make the employment of the child 
absolutely necessary, and if, 

3. The employer will give a written declaration that he will 
leave the child free to attend school in the morning. ... If the 
morning instruction thereafter is not regularly attended, the obli- 
gation of full attendance becomes once more operative." (v. 
Appendix 20, post.) 

" Every child is obliged to attend school up to the close of the 
semester in which he completes his 14th year. A child who is 
not fit for the middle grade of a gemeinde school, must remain 
after the close of his 14th year, and until he is promoted to the 
middle grade or, until, according to the judgment of the local 
inspector, a satisfactory outcome may be expected of his atten- 
dance. A child may be exempted from attendance before the 
end of his 14th year by an explicit request to the school depu- 
tation, only if he is, in the judgment of the local school inspector, 
as determined by the testimony of the head teacher, proficient 
for the first class of a gemeinde school, and if particular circum- 
stances make his discharge from school unconditioned. . . . Until 
the dispensation issues, the parents are compelled, under penalty, 
to allow their child to attend regularly," 

Then follow certain regulations concerning confirmation and 
the punishment for neglect of school. 

Neglect of School Duty 
From a pamphlet dated City Hall, Room y6, issued at Berlin 
as Form 152, VI, we get the following information concerning 
the " Regulation of School Attendance for School Children of 
the Vicinity, and the Punishment for the Neglect of School 
Duty." 



3 2 Registration of City School Children 

Sec. 4. For the making of the hsts of all children that have 
become of school age, there are composed, half-yearly, by the 
Bureau of Police Precincts, directories, in which occur the names 
of all children that become of school age. The directories are 
issued by the police bureau to the school deputation not later 
than February 8th and August 8th of each year, and then sent 
by the school deputation to the school commission. Cf. Sec. 18, 
Instruction for the School Commission. 

Sec. 5. On Saturday of each week, each class teacher makes 
a selection, from the list of absentees and according to a pre- 
scribed form, of every child that has missed school one or more 
days without adequate excuse, and turns it over to the Rector 
who sends it forthwith to the Chairman of the school commis- 
sion that has jurisdiction over the case. 

Sec. 6. The Chairman transmits these notices on the following 
Monday to the members of the commission, who investigate 
immediately, by personal inquiry, the status of the parents, 
guardian, etc., the reason for the absence, and endorse briefly on 
the notices, whether the absence occurred through the illness of 
the child or misfortune of the family, and whether it is to be 
regarded as excused. In this connection, the guiding principle 
to be adhered to is, that in regard to children betv/een 6 and 11, 
only personal sickness can be accepted as excuse. 

Sec. 7. On Friday of each week the assigned member of the 
school commission, gives back the notices, thus discharged, to 
the chairman of the commission, who sends them early on Satur- 
day to the Rector, for distribution to the class teachers. The class 
teachers preserve the notices in order to make use of them in 
making out new notices in case of repeated neglect on the part 
of the same child, (v. Appendix: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 
18, post.) 

Potsdam Regidations 

From Wilhelm Bockler's " Verordnungen betreffend das Volk- 
schulwesen des R. B. Potsdam," Breslau, 1905 (Ferdinand Hirt), 
certain other details concerning the registration of school chil- 
dren in Potsdam, which may be taken as an example of the usual 
German procedure, can be secured. The work is complete and 
gives the laws for all points concerning the admission and dis- 
charge of children, but only those sections that deal with the 
subject of registration are given. 

Under III, p. 12, caption " Schiilerliste," occur the following 
regulations : 

12. Before the beginning of each new school year, each school 
(i.e. school of one class) and in case of schools of more than one 



Germany 3 3 

class, each class, must prepare a complete list of all the children 
belonging to the school or classes. (Note: The list must have 
6 columns: i. the serial number of the child; 2. the name and 
birthday ; 3. the day of beginning school ; 4. the day of ending 
school ; 5. the name, rank, and residence of parent, guardian, or 
master; 6. remarks of the teacher concerning conduct, diligence, 
and progress of the child.) 

13. In these Hsts are to be included those children for whose 
instruction care is taken outside of the public schools. 

14. The officials have the right and duty to supervise the 
instruction of those children coming under Sec. 13, unless these 
attend an institution looked after by another board. If these 
children show that they are below the grade of similar children 
in the public school, they may be sent to the public school. 

15. The office of the preparation of the lists belongs to the 
school deputation, and where there is not any such, to the teacher, 
not to the school board. Yet the school board must test the com- 
pleteness of these teachers' lists and perfect them. 

16. In the cities, the " magistrat," and in the country the 
district board, have the power to provide the school deputation 
with the necessary communications between the persons of the 
district for the ^completion of the lists. He must also, if families 
with children of school age appear in the district, immediately 
communicate this fact to the officers assigned to the preparation 
of the school lists, who, thereupon have, by circuit, to complete 
the lists. 

17. The school lists must be in the hands of the class teachers 
with whom the children are to be, within one week, at the latest, 
before the beginning of the school year. After the expiration 
of the school year, they are to be carefully preserved by the school 
deputation (commission, board). 

There then follows a section on Lists of Neglect of School 
Duty, and another on the Following Up of School Neglect. 
Under VIII occurs the following: 

31. Where the school boards believe themselves not adequately 
supported by the police authority in executing this order (i.e., the 
provisions preceding), they may proceed to the president of the 
Provincial Court, and, in case of cities without the kreis, they 
may proceed to us (i.e., the Minister). 

Under 3 occurs further provision concerning the school list. 
It is made in a communication directed to the authorities and 
reads as follows : 

" The inquiries specially instituted by the Ministers of Spiritual, 
Educational, and Health Affairs in regard to matters of educa- 
tion in the army, have exhibited again how greatly important 



3 4 Registration of City School Children 

it is for the common school system : that a complete manifest of 
the children of school age and those about to enter it should be 
given to the teacher ; that the aforementioned list of absentees 
should not only be exactly made but carefully supervised; and 
that, finally, a certificate of discharge should be issued to the 
pupils of the common school on their leaving," etc., etc. There 
then follows a recapitulation of the regulations. Then, the letter 
goes on : 

" Particularly do we impose the duty on ' magistrats ' and Com- 
mittees of the Gemeinde of seeing that there is transmitted in 
good season to the school authorities and the teacher, the neces- 
sary communications concerning the children of school age so 
that the school lists may be made ready 14 days before the begin- 
ning of the Easter term, or, where admissions are made twice 
a year, before Michaelmas also. So we direct, as duty of the 
' magistrates ' and local boards, to have all children becoming of 
school age during the school year to communicate immediately 
with the school boards or masters so that the school lists may 
be kept continuously up to date. To the exact control of those 
children becoming of school age during the school year, in places 
having a fluctuating population, should be given the highest atten- 
tion. On this account the school boards and masters should have 
the school lists and lists of absentees carefully guarded in a 
firm book so that the administration of instruction may be in 
such condition that information may be given, especially to the 
military authorities, in regard to every pupil of the volkschool 
even after his discharge." 

The author then gives the laws controlling transfer, discharge, 
child labor, half-day instruction, etc., etc., which are substantially 
the same as for Berlin. The regulations controlling the schooling 
of children on ships that ply the rivers and of domestic gypsies 
are given briefly. 

Solingen 

Through the courtesy of one of the officers of the mayor's office 
in Solingen, there were secured a number of the blanks used 
in registering school children and an account of a supposititious 
pupil, Hans Berg. As this account states briefly and vividly the 
procedure, it is given in full : 

" Hans Berg lives with his father in Solingen, and on April, 
1909, becomes of school age. In March, 1909, Hans is entered 
on the Schulstammrolle (Form I) App. i, which is made and 
kept by the Oberburgermeister on the basis of the Register of 
Inhabitants in the Registry Office. The school commissioner 
(literally " leader "), of the district in which Hans lives, receives 



Germany 3 5 

an abstract from the Schulstammrolle by means of the School 
List (Form II) App. 2. To the parents of the children entered 
in this Hst, the commissioner sends information that the child 
at such a time must be sent to school. By means of a notice in 
the public prints a date is fixed for admissions. If Hans through 
sickness is kept from school, the father must excuse him by 
application to the class teacher or school commissioner. If it 
is suspected that the child is not sick and is illegally absent, 
the school commissioner must personally investigate, and if the 
case requires it, bring the matter to the office of the Oberburger- 
meister to have the child examined by the school physician. If 
Hans plays truant or is absent without excuse, the father's name 
is entered on the police list (die vom Schulleiter dem Oberburger- 
meister Amt Polizei Verwaltung einzureichende Schulversaum- 
nissliste). The parents of the children contained in the list of 
absentees are warned, if theirs is a first offence ; and, on the 
second or subsequent offence, punished. If Hans moves with 
his parents from Solingen to Berlin, the father must give to the 
school commissioner the date and place of the changed residence. 
By means of Form III, App. 6, the school commissioner informs 
the new district through the office of the Oberburgermeister of 
the departure. Hans must, on the day following his entry into 
the new place, apply at the school in the new district. This is 
controlled by the notification issued by the school commissioner 
of the district in which the father formerly lived. The child 
cannot remain from school to help about the house without per- 
mission of the commissioner. The commissioner very seldom 
gives permission for a child to remain to do housework at home 
even for a couple of hours." (v. Appendix, 8, 9, and 10 post.) 



CHAPTER II 

FRANCE 

The principal features of the French system of enumerating 
and registering school children, and keeping them at school, are 
to be found in the Loi sur I'Enseignement Primaire Obligatoire, 
du 28 mars, 1882. Its sections with annotations of subsequent 
acts of the Senate, can be found in the Petit Code de ITnstruction, 
etc., par A. E. Pichard, Paris, Libraire Hachette et Cie. The 
law of 1882 with the exceptions of sections 5 and 17 is still in 
force, number 5 having been repealed by chapter 2 of the Loi 
sur rOrganisation de I'Enseignment Primaire du 30 octobre, 1886. 

The sections concerning the registration of children follO'^V : 

Art. 4. Elementary instruction is compulsory for children of 
both sexes that have completed 6 years and until they have com- 
pleted 13 years. It may be given in primary or secondary schools 
or in the family by the father of the family or any one chosen 
by him. (Cf. art. 18.) 

Art. 5. cf. post. 

Art. 6. There is a certificate for elementary studies. Eligi- 
bility for it is discovered by public examination at which children 
II years old may present themselves. Those who at that age 
obtain the certificate are exempt from compulsory attendance 
thereafter. 

Art. 7. The father, tutor, or person in parental capacity must, 
at least 15 days before the sessions begin, make known to the 
mayor of the commune whether he intends to give his child 
instruction at home or in a public or a private school. In the 
latter case, he is to specify the school selected. Families living 
near one or more public schools have the option of enrolling their 
children at one or another of the schools, whether or not it be 
within the commune, unless it has already reached the maximum 
number of pupils allowed by the regulations. In case of dispute^ 
and on the demand either of the mayor or parents, the council 
of the Department will give a final decree. 

Art. 8. Each year the mayor will make up, in co-operation 
with the municipal school commission, the list of all the children 
from 6 to 13 years, and inform those in parental relation of the 
date when the school will resume. In case of a failure on the 
part of the parents or those in parental relation to make a decla- 
36 



France 3 7 

ration 15 clays before the resumption of the sessions, he will assign 
the child to one of the public schools and inform the party respon- 
sible, of the fact.^ Eight days after the resumption of sessions 
he will send to the principals of the public and private schools 
the list of children that should attend their schools. A duplicate 
of these lists is to be sent by him to the elementary inspector. 

Art. 9. When a child leaves school, the parents or persons in 
parental relation, must give immediate notice to the mayor and 
indicate in what way the child Vv^ill be educated thereafter. 

Art. 10. If a child is absent from school for a short time, the 
parents, or those in parental relation, ought to make known to 
the principal the motives of the absence. 

( But a note says : Aucune peine ne peut etre infligee aux 
parents qui ont refuse de faire connaitre les motifs d'absence. 
" La Commission (i.e., the committee that had the Education Bill 
in hand, reporting by its chairman), disait M. Ribere, rapporteur 
(Senat-Seance du 14 juin 1881), a examine I'amendment pro- 
pose par I'honorable M. Paris. Cet amendment modifie le projet 
en ce sens que les parents euxmemes seront obliges de faire 
connaitre au director ou a la directrice de I'ecole les raisons^ 
pour lesquelles leur enfant n'aurait pas assiste a une ou a plus- 
ieurs classes. Le projet de loi n'impose pas cette obligation aux 
parents. Nous acceptons cependent, sur ce point, I'amendement 
de notre honorable collegue, toute en faisant remarquer que cette 
obligation n'est suivie d'aucune sanction.) 

The principals must keep a roll book which will establish for 
each class the absence of pupils therein contained. At the end 
of each month they will send to the mayor and elementary inspec- 
tor an extract from this roll with a statement of the number of 
absences and the reasons assigned. 

The reasons are to be submitted to the school commission. The 
only legal motives are as follows : personal illness ; death in the 
family ; obstacles arising from accidental difficulties of communi- 

' Pichard, op. cit. p. 9. L'inscription d'office d'un enfant a I'une des 
^coles publique, n'implique pas I'obligation de frequenter cette ^cole 
publique. Cf. Declaration du Rapporteur, Chambre des D^put^s — 
Stance du 24 d^cembre 1880. " Lorsque le pere de famille aura oubli^ 
de faire dans les quinze jours la declaration, le maire inscrira d'office 
I'enfant a I'une des ^coles publiques. Mais cette inscription d'office 
est un simple rappel au pere de famille, et celui-ci n'a qu'a dire qu'il 
inscrit son enfant a une autre ^cole et a le retirer de I'dcole publique." 

Similarly, S^nat-Seance du 18 mars 1882 : These dates are undoubtedly 
correct. The statements are mere indications of a practice thereto- 
fore pursued, antedating the act of March 28, or the sense of the com- 
mittee. 



38 Registration of City School Children 

cation. Other circumstances, occasionally ascribed, will be passed 
upon by the commission.^ 

Art. II. Every principal of a private school that does not con- 
form to the regulations of the preceding article, is to be, on the 
report of the school commission, referred to the council for the 
Department. This council may pronounce any of the following 
penalties: i. warning; 2. censure; 3. suspension for a month 
at most, or, in case of recurrence within the school year, sus- 
pension for 3 months at most. 

Art. 12. If a child is absent for at least half a day four times 
in any month without excuse considered adequate by the munici- 
pal school commission, the father, tutor, or person in- parental 
relation, will be invited, at least 3 days in advance, to appear in 
the town hall before the said commission who will recall to him 
the text oi the law and explain to him his duty. In case of non- 
appearance without adequate excuse admitted, the commission 
will impose the penalty indicated in article 13.^ 

^ The spirit in which these clauses are to be interpreted can be seen 
from M. Ribiere's repHes in the S6nat on 18 mars 1882, 10 days before 
the act became a law: — " II y a pour les commissions scolaires, pleni- 
tude d' appreciation pour les motifs d'excuse qui peuvent etre allegu^s. 
Cela resulte des termes meme de I'article 10 in fine. Nous dohnons le 
sens le plus large a ce paragraphe dernier de I'article 10 et nous pen- 
sons que la Commission scolaire a toute latitude, tout pouvoir, pour 
recevoir les explications donn^es par les peres de famille, et les d&Iarer 
parfaitement excusable." 

And: — " L'explication demand^ par notre honorable collegue, M. 
Hervy de Saisy, est, je crois, facile h. donner. II n'a pas examine d'assez 
pres la fin du paragraph 3 de I'article 10, d'apres lequel les autres cir- 
constances exceptionellement invoqu^es seront ^galement appreci^es 
par la commission. II est incontestable qu'il y a des causes d'excuse 
qui sont causes d'excuse absolus: la maladie de I'enfant; le d^ces des 
membres de la famille. Mais lorsqu'il s'agit de la maladie d'un membre 
de la famille, il y a la une question d'appr^ciation. Une indisposition 
ordinaire ne peut pas toujours etre une cause d'excuse pour I'enfant; 
mais il est incontestable qu'aussit6t un membre de la famille est malade, 
s^rieusement malade, et que la presence de I'enfant n'est pas seulement 
n^cessaire mais est utile, que c'est un acte d'affection qui doit etre accompli 
par I'enfant, la commission scolaire interviendra immediatement et 
excusera." 

' Note: to Art. 12 : Des que les quatre absences dont parle I'article 12 
ont eu lieu, I'infraction est commise, et immediatement la commission 
scolaire peut proc^der, selon la cas, ou a la citation ou h. la plainte, sans 
attendre la fin du mois pendent lequel se calculent les quatre absences. 

Also Pichard, op cit. p. 15, in regard to Art. 13, " Le contrevenant, ^ 
qui I'affichage a ^t^ inflig^, qu'il est ou non camparu, devient passible 



France ■ 3 9 

Art. 13. In case of a second offence within the two months 
that follow the first infraction, the municipal school commission 
will order the posting for 15 days or one month on the door of 
the mayor's office, the name, first name, and rank of the party 
responsible, with an indication of the act charged against him. 
The same penalty to those that have not submitted to Art. 9. 

Art. 14. In case of a new infraction, the school commission, 
or, in default of that, the elementary inspector, will send a com- 
plaint to the judge. The offence will be considered as a mis- 
demeanor and will constrain punishment at the hands of the police, 
pursuant to Articles 479, 480, et post of the Penal Code. Article 
463 of the same Code is applicable. 

Art. 15. The school commission, may, to children living with 
their tutor or parents, when the latter make a request for it, and 
give reasons, accord exemptions from attendance at school not 
exceeding 3 months in addition to the vacations. These dis- 
pensations, when they are for more than 2 weeks, are to be sub- 
mitted to the approval of the elementary inspector. These require- 
ments are not applicable to the children that will follow parents 
or tutors when the latter are temporarily absent from the com- 
mune. In this case an oral statement, or a statement in writing 
to the mayor or school principal is sufficient. The commission 
may also, with the approval of the council of the Department, 
exempt children employed in business and arrived at the age of 
apprenticeship, from one of the two classes of the day. The same 
option will be granted to all children employed in agriculture out- 
side of the family. (This is slightly modified by the law of 
Nov. 2, 1892.) 

Art. 16. Children that receive instruction in the family, must, 
each year, beginning with the end of the second year of com- 
pulsory education, submit to an examination which will deal with 
the subjects of instruction prescribed for their age in the public 
schools, in the manner and according to the program determined 

des peines port^es par I'article 14, et justiciable du tribunal du simple 
police. (Arr^t de la Cour de Cassation du 4 aout 1883. — Affaire de 
Salaberry.) " 

And on page 17, in regard to Art. 14, Pichard reports that the Minister 
remarked: " Je trouve que 1 'infraction en cas de nouvelle recidive, est 
tellement grave qu'elle ne peut etre rattachde qu'a la troisi^me cate- 
goire des contraventions. Et d'ailleurs, je fais remarquer, que la peine 
de la prison est facultative. L'Art. 479 punit d'une amende de i ^ 15 
francs les contraventions de la troisieme classe, et I'Art. 480 ajoute: 
Pourra selon les circonstances etre prononc^e la peine de I'imprison- 
ment pendent 5 jours au plus. Le juge de paix pourra done, si le cas 
n'est pas d'une gravity extreme, se bomer a. prononcer la peine de 
Tamende, et, s'il juge n^cessaire d'y ajouter la prison, il pourra abaisser 
la peine jusqu'a un jour car I'article 463 peut toujours etre appliqu^." 



40 Registration of City School Children 

by the Ministerial decisions announced in the Superior Council. 
The examining body will be composed of etc., etc. If the exami- 
nation paper of a child is deficient and no excuse can be admitted 
for it by the examiners, the parents are compelled to send the 
child to public or private school within the week of the notifi- 
cation, and to inform the mayor what school has been chosen. 

Art. 17 repealed. 

Art. 18. The Ministerial decisions given on demand of the 
inspectors of academies and councils for Departments, will deter- 
mine, each year, those communes, where by reason of the incapa- 
city of local schools, the requirements of Art. 4 et post on com- 
pulsion, cannot be applied. 

Further indications of the structure of public education that 
enables the French government to control the matter of the regis- 
tration of children, are to be found in the law of October 30, 1886, 
Loi sur I'Organisation de I'Enseignement Primaire, parts of which 
are here given : 

Title I. Ch. II. p. Inspection: Inspection of the establishments 
of instruction, public or private, is exercised by: i. inspectors 
general of public instruction ; 2. rectors and academic inspectors ; 
3. inspectors of elementary education; 4. members of the council 
of the Department assigned for that in accordance with Sec. 50 
{post) ; 5. by the mayor and cantonal delegates; 6. in the ecoles 
maternelles, concurrently with the foregoing, by women inspectors 
general and women departmental inspectors of the ecoles mater- 
nelles; 7. by the communal or departmental inspecting physicians, 
etc. 

Title II. Ch. I. Establishment of Public Schools 

11. Every commune must be provided with at least one public 
elementary school. But the Departmental council can, with the 
approval of the Minister, authorize one commune to unite with 
one or several neighboring communes for the establishment and 
maintenance of a school. 

12. When the commune or union of communes numbers more 
than 500, it must have a separate school for girls unless authorized 
by the Departmental council to substitute for it a mixed school. 

13. The Departmental council, after getting the views of the 
municipal councils, determines, subject to the approval of the 
Minister, the number, nature, and location of the elementary public 
schools that may be established or maintained in each commune, 
and the number of teachers to be associated therewith. 

14. The establishment of the elementary public schools created 
by sections 11, 12, and 13 of the present law, is a mandatory 
charge on the communes. 



France 41: 

Title III. Education in Private Schools 

37. Every head-master that wishes to open a private school 
must first state his intention to the mayor of the commune in 
which he wishes to establish it, and must indicate the premises. 
The mayor will immediately return to the applicant a receipt of 
his declaration and post the latter at the entrance of the office 
for a month. If the mayor believes that the location is not suitable 
for reasons moral or hygienic, he will present his opposition within 
a week and give notice of that result to the applicant. The same 
declarations must be made in changing" the address of the school 
or to admit interne pupils. 

Other sections state that the higher authorities must be informed, 
and section 40 indicates that the opening of private schools in 
contravention of the preceding restrictions subject the head-master 
to a fine of 100 to 1,000 francs, and the closing of the school; 
and, in case of a repetition of the offence, imprisonment of from 
6 days to a month, and a fine of 500 to 2,000 francs. 

Section 41 says that a head-master of a private school may be 
removed on the complaint of an academic inspector and forbidden 
to practice his profession in the commune or Department if guilty 
of immorality, and section 42 adds that any head-master not sub- 
mitting to inspection according to law, may be indicted before 
the Court of Corrections and fined 50 to 500 francs or, in case of 
repetition, 100 to 1,000 francs. If the two offences are within 
the year the school is to be closed by law. 

Title IV tells of the different councils governing educational 
matters. Chapter I gives the members of the Departmental coun- 
cil and states its jurisdiction, which, among other things, includes 
a determination of the public schools according to population and 
a yearly report on the needs of public and private schools. They 
designate a resident delegate or delegates to supervise the public 
and private schools of each canton. 

Chapter II deals with the school commissions which consist of 
the mayor and as many delegates chosen by the academy inspector 
as there are cantons in the commune, and of members chosen 
by the municipal council equal to one-third of the numbers of the 
council. In Paris and Lyon there is a school commission for 
every arrondissement. It is presided over by the m.ayor and is 
composed of one cantonal delegate chosen by the academy inspec- 
tor and of members chosen by the municipal council to the num- 



42 Registration of City School Children 

ber of from 3 to 7 for each arrondissement. They must meet 
at least once every 3 months. It is prohibited by section 58 
from participating under any circumstances in the subject matter 
or method of instruction. Its main duty is to get children into 
school and to keep them there. 

To secure the proper performance of his function Minister J. 
Duvaux, on the 7th of September, 1882, addressed a circular letter 
to the various Prefects on the enforcement of the compulsory law 
of March 28, 1882, which letter, after a brief opening, runs as 
follows : 

" The municipal school commissioners, named in each com- 
mune and completed by the nomination of the delegate academy 
inspector, are to fulfil the first part of their offices: it is their 
duty, according to Art. 8 of the law, to aid the mayor, in making 
up a list of all the children from 6 to 13 years. The essential 
elements for this task are furnished by the lists of the last official 
census of population. But changes of address and other various 
circumstances occurring in some communes, have changed the 
number of children to be enrolled. In order to prevent the chance 
of any error or omission, the law has given over to the local 
commissioners the care of revising annually the list of names of 
children of school age, and to that end I have already sent you a 
model roster. 

" If, as is hardly possible, any commissioners through negli- 
gence or any other motive, refuse to meet to complete the making 
of these lists, it will be your duty, Prefect, by virtue of your 
office to have them made without delay by the mayor, or, in his 
absence, by the delegate academy inspector or by the primary 
inspector. For the new lists, the old lists of the quinquennial 
census are to be taken as the base of the re-enumeration. 

" As soon as this has been done, there remains to determine 
according to law, if, and in what way, the education of every 
named child has been provided for. 

" The liberty of every father is complete. He can choose any 
one of these modes : Education at a public school ; at a free 
school ; or at home. The law demands merely that, before the 
beginning of the school year, he will make known to the mayor 
which of the three means will be adopted. 

" For the great majority of families, the choice has already been 
made before the time of the resumption, and there is, at this time, 
knowledge in the hands of the authorities which permits consider- 
able simplification of the formality demanded by Art. 7. 

" If the family sends, or continues to send, its children to a 
public school, the entry on the school register dispenses with all 



France 43 

other statement. If it sends them to a free school, the entry 
therein, duly transmitted to the municipal school commission, is 
equivalent to a declaration. 

" As for the parents that desire to instruct or to have their 
children instructed at home, they have only to make known their 
intention in order to avoid having their children considered 
deprived of means of instruction. 

" In order to spare to families that are in the last-mentioned 
class any embarrassment or unnecessary inconvenience, the mayor, 
president, or municipal commission will proceed as follows : After 
enumerating on the general list of children of school age, the 
names of children educated in any school whatever, public or 
private, he will determine the names of all those not appearing 
on any school register and send to their parents as prescribed by 
Art. 8, a notice of which I send herewith a model : 

Republic of France 

Department of 

Commune of , , 1882. 

Sir: — The law of March 28, 1882 makes obligatory the education 
of children of both sexes between 6 years past and 13 years past. 

In order to obey the requirements of the law, I have the honor to 
inform you that in terms of Art. 7. 'the father, tutor, or guardian of 
every child from 6 to 13 years, must make known to the mayor of the 
commune whether he intends to give the child instruction at home or 
in a public or a private school. In the latter case he will indicate the 
school selected.' 

I beg you to inform me without delay which of these three means 
you will adopt for your children. 

In order to avoid all confusion or delay, I am sending to you with 
directions to fill them out, as many forms as you have children of school 
age. You can return these signed by you, either by post or by any 
other means, unless you prefer to make an oral answer at the office where 
you will find me on 

Accept, dear sir, the assurance of my distinguished consideration, 

Mayor. 

President of the Municipal School Commission. 

" Parents having been thus duly cited by this letter are to make 
known how they intend to provide for the instruction of their 
children. In order to facilitate reply, the mayor will add to his 
letter a form (see below) which the families will return to him 
if they wish to avoid inconvenience. 



44 Registration of City School Children 

REPLY OF THE FATHER TO THE MAYOR 

Department of 

Commune of 



The undersigned states that the young (insert the name 

of the child) bom on, will receive instruction at 

(insert whether the instruction will be at home or 

in school or give the address of the school.) 



(Father, tutor, or guardian.) 



" On receipt of the response, orally or in writing, if the parents 
state that they themselves will educate the children, the mayor 
will deliver the acknowledgment as follows : 

Republic of France 

Department of 

Commune of , , 

(Date) 

Sir: — I have your reply of in which you state that 

your son (daughter) , born , (will) receive (s) 

instruction at home. 

In acknowledging this declaration I wish to recall to you that by the 
terms of Art. i6, children instructed at home, must, from the end of 
the second year of compulsory education, submit to an examination 
which will involve the subject matter of instruction for children of that 
age in the public schools. You will be informed later of the date and 
place of the examination. 

Accept, dear sir, the assurance of my distinguished consideration. 

Mayor. 

President of the Municipal School Commission. 

" If they fail to reply, the mayor will, after a final letter o£ 
reminder (cf. post), and in virtue of his office, enroll in a public 
school and pursuant to Art 8 the children for whom instruction 
has not been assured and for whom the commission has not 
admitted motive for neglect. 

LETTER OF REMINDER BY THE MAYOR 

Department of 

Commune of , , 

Second and Last Warning 

Sir: — By my letter of , I had the honor of inviting you 

to let me know, pursuant to the law of March 28, 1882, whether you 
intended to have your children educated at home or in a public or a 
private school. 



France 45 

I have not received any reply to this request which I sent to you 
in the name of the law. 

I herewith repeat my invitation and warn you of the terms of Art. 
8 of the law: ' in case of failure to state, on the part of parents the mayor 
will officially assign the children for whom instruction has not been 
provided, to one of the public schools.' 

Accept, dear sir, the assurance of my distinguished consideration. 

Mayor. 

President of the Municipal School Commission." 

The Minister then closes with a compHment to the Govern- 
ment that has shown itself on every occasion " resolved not to 
recede from any sacrifice that will serve to render complete the 
work of national education." 



CHAPTER III 
ENGLAND : LONDON 

The following account of the system of the registration of 
children in London has been secured by letter from the office of 
the Education officer of that city and from the Report of the 
Education Committee of the London County Council, presented 
to the Council, May, 1909, and dealing with the elementary school 
accommodation and attendance for the year ending March 31, 
1908. 

The compulsory education law requires every child from 5 to 
14 to attend school for "the whole time for which the school 
selected shall be opened for the instruction of children of similar 
age, including the day fixed by His Majesty's Inspector for his 
annual visit," " although a child between 12 and 14 years of age 
shall not be required to attend school if such child has received a 
certificate from one of His Majesty's Inspectors of Schools that 
it has reached the Seventh Standard prescribed by the Code for 
the time being." 

The Report presents figures extending over 10 years, giving 
the number of children of age from 3 to 5, 5 to 13, and those 
over 13 that are attending school. In 1898 the number of 5-13 
and "Over 13 attending school" equalled 885,725. This grew 
larger till 1901, when it began to fall and reached in 1908 the 
number 882,834, to schedule which it took 5 weeks. 

To look after this large number of children there is a divisional 
staff in the department of attendance of 12 superintendents, 7 
assistant superintendents, 41 clerks (5 temporary), 9 messengers 
(4 temporary), and 352 school attendance officers.^ Of the total 
number of school attendance officers, 13 were employed as street 
officers, and 12 as special officers for Industrial School work, 
while 8 were unattached and subject to call in case of the absence 

1 About 80 additional assistants are hired temporarily at the time of 
the scheduling to do clerical work in order that the regular attendance 
officers may not be taken too much from the street work. The regular 
force covers the entire County of London, 77,495 acres with a population 
of 4,834,000. " Greater London " contains 448,293 acres and 7,500,000 
population. 
46 



England 47 

of a regular officer through illness or special assignment. The 
staff is divided into 12 sections. The salary of an attendance 
officer begins at £80 and rises annually to £156 in 15 years. 

For the purpose of ascertaining the number of children requir- 
ing elementary school accommodation, and for the effective admin- 
istration of the compulsory clauses of the Education Acts, a sched- 
uling or census of all of the children of the elementary school class 
is taken each year in the month of May by the Council's atten- 
dance officers. The results of this scheduling provide the basis 
of measurement of the sufficiency of the school accommodation 
provided ; they also show the extent to which the attendance of 
the children at school is maintained. 

Each of the 12 divisions mentioned above contains about 75,000 
children of compulsory school age. As there are over 300 atten- 
dance officers to look after these, there are between 2,500 and 
3,000 children to be followed up by each officer. A schedule or 
register in book form of all families in the district is kept. When 
a family moves. Form XI is sent to the officer into whose district 
the new address lies. 

The council seems to regard the annual scheduling as effective, 
for the secretary of the Education Committee writes : " After a 
census has been taken to verify all children that are attending 
school, a reasonable excuse is sought for all those that are absent. 
Having got all the children in the district on the books and in 
school (or a reasonable excuse for their absence), there is a 
weekly record of each child's attendance from the Head Teacher 
on Slip B. These slips are sent to the office where the attendance 
officers work. The officer examines each slip and selects for visit- 
ing those where the attendance is irregular." If the parent is 
recalcitrant the case goes to a Committee of Managers that sum- 
mons the parent and warns him. In case of no improvement, the 
Chief Attendance officer of the Division prosecutes on a summons 
issued by him. About 90 per cent of the defendants are convicted. 
The school attendance cases are not heard in separate courts, 
but the parties involved do not come into contact with other cases 
pending in the court. 

In addition to the house-to-house canvass there are, in each 
Division, two officers employed in taking the names and addresses 
of children found on the streets during school hours. Another 



48 Registration of City School Children 

officer is always engaged with Industrial School cases ; that is, he 
makes inquiries in regard to children seen begging, wandering, 
stealing, etc. 

In addition to such children being dealt with as are found during 
the course of the officer's visits, periodical street raids are organ- 
ized. In these raids all the attendance officers of the division 
engage and the whole division is raided. Only 15 officers are 
employed as street officers solely. Their attention is directed par- 
ticularly to markets, railway stations, etc. 

Of the 14,878 found by street officers alone, 12,207 were already 
registered in the schools and 966 were subsequently admitted to 
school ; 96 were wholly exempt ; and 803 gave a wrong address. 
Of the 3,690 found by raidmg, 3,250 were already registered in 
the schools; 159 were subsequently registered; none were totally 
exempt; and 116 gave a wrong address. In the former case 
250 were ill, and in the latter, 83 were ill, and 38 were in London 
only on a visit. The remainder is comparatively small. The 
children were disposed of in industrial schools and other insti- 
tutions and so registered. 

Since 1901, London has maintained a nightly surveillance of 
her streets by the attendance officers, and during the year 1907-8, 
320 children were arrested. Of these, 174 were sent to industrial 
schools and so registered ; and 146 discharged on parole and 
kept under observation. 

The Council believes that this method of scheduling the chil- 
dren and street inspection is responsible for the continuous 
improvement since 1897 in the per cent of attendance. In the 
former year it was 80.7, since which time it has grown steadily 
to 88.9. This is for the entire city or Metropolitan District. For 
Whitechapel, in the L. C. C. schools, the attendance is 94.1, and 
for all schools, 91.7. 

The report adds : " It must, however, be borne in mind that, 
in order to maintain the high standard of attendance reached, it 
was necessary for the attendance officers to pay nearly 4^ million 
visits to parents during the year 1907-08, an average of over 
13,000 per officer, in addition to serving cautionary notices and 
summonses. 

The Education Acts of 1870, and later, impose upon the local 
education authorities the necessity of making by-laws for the 
compulsory attendance of school children, and such by-laws must 



England 49 

include provision for the exemption from attendance, on certain 
conditions, of children from 12 to 14 years of age. Variety of 
practice obtains, but, in London, attendance is compulsory up to 
14 except for children of 12 certified as having passed the 7th 
Standard at an examination held by His Majesty's Inspector. Only 
930 children obtained exemption in the year 1907-08. Whereas, 
in some manufacturing districts children over 12 who reach a 
certain standard, attend school for one-half the day and work 
the other half. The disadvantages arising from such a system 
have been so realized by the London authority, that since 1900 
no provision has been made in the by-laws for half-time. 

So, also, different methods of enforcing attendance are in 
vogue in England, but, in London, the foundations of the work 
are the annual scheduling and the " slip system." Under the 
latter there is a return, in the form of a slip, for every child in 
attendance at school. On this slip the number of attendances 
made is recorded week by week during the term, the slips being 
collected from the schools each week and examined by the school 
attendance officers, who note on them the result of their visits, 
and return the slips for the information of teachers and the inser- 
tion of the current week's attendance. 

The question of an annual count as opposed to a biennial count 
is discussed in The Accommodation and Attendance Report, 31 
March, 1907 : 

'' The question has recently been under consideration whether 
it is necessary to have a scheduling every year, or whether a less 
frequent census, say a biennial one, would suffice. The value of 
the scheduling as a census is perhaps greatest in those districts 
where building operations are proceeding, and where it is neces- 
sary therefore that the course of the elementary school popu- 
lation shall be continuously watched in order that adequate school 
provision may be made at the proper time. It is, however, of 
almost equal importance that a frequent census should be made 
in districts, such as those in central London, in which the popu- 
lation is on the decline. This is more particularly the case at 
the present time, because, in certain central districts, proposals 
have been made for the provision of new Council schools to take 
the place of ' unsuitable,' non-provided schools, and it is pos- 
sible, with the help of the annual census, to regulate this pro- 
vision so that the accommodation to be provided shall not more 
than meet the needs. 



5© Registration of City School Children 

" From the point of view of school attendance work, however, 
the argument for and against an annual scheduling follow, to 
some extent, the reverse direction. The schedule books in each 
divisional office form a record to which continual reference is 
made during the year by the attendance officers; the names of 
new children coming into the district are entered ; removals within 
the district and transfers from school to school are noted ; and 
the names of children leaving the district or passing the age limit 
are struck out. In a densely populated and less well-to-do dis- 
trict, therefore, especially when the population is of a migratory 
character, the alterations in the schedule books become so numer- 
ous that it is essential that new books should be prepared at the 
end of each year. It would, of course, be possible to transfer 
the information from an old book to a new one, but this method 
would be liable to cause inaccuracies, and the amount of labor 
saved would be comparatively small. In the more sparsely popu- 
lated areas, as also in the well-to-do districts where the population 
is of a more settled character, the need for an annual scheduling 
is not so great. 

" The chief argument that can be advanced in favor of a bien- 
nial scheduling is the fact that, during the scheduling period, 
which occupies, as a rule, about a month, the attendance officers 
are not able to carry out their ordinary work of visitation. There 
is, however, little doubt that the systematic visitation carried out 
during the scheduling of every house of the district likely to 
contain elementary school children, has a moral effect which is 
an advantage to the attendance work. It is possible, also, to 
minimize the loss of power occasioned during this period bv 
arranging, with the assistance of head-masters and mistresses, 
to deal with the very worst cases of bad attendance. This course 
of action is in some degree followed at the present time, and the 
question of enlarging its scope is being considered. 

" There is also the economy argument. During the scheduling 
it is necessary to employ additional temporary assistants at a 
yearly cost of about ^550. It does not appear, however, from the 
consideration set out above, that a saving of £550 every two 
years by the institution of a biennial scheduling, would counter- 
balance the advantages which accrue from the present annual 
scheduling." 

Prevention of school neglect, rather than cure, is aimed at and 
cases of irregular attendance are taken in hand at the earliest 
stage and efforts made to obtain the desired result without 
recourse to force. The law is, in fact, appealed to only as a last 
resort. 



CHAPTER IV 

COMPULSORY EDUCATION LAWS AND SCHOOL 
CENSUS LAWS IN THE STATES OF THE UNITED 
STATES 

Digest of the Compulsory Education Laws of the Several 

States 

Alabama, none. 

Arizona, 8-14; 12 weeks, six consecutive. 

Arkansas, none. 

California, 8-14; 5 months of the public school year, 18 weeks 
consecutive. Deaf, dumb, and blind must attend unless 
excused by Board. 

Colorado, 8-14; entire school year; 14-16 must attend if not 
through the 8th grade. 

Connecticut, 7-14; entire session; 14-16 unless employed or if illit- 
erate. 

Delaware, none. 

Florida, none. 

Georgia, no child under 14 may be employed unless able to read 
and write and has attended 12 weeks, 6 consecutive. 

Idaho, 8-14; 14-16 unless needed for parents' support or other- 
wise excused; 12 weeks, 8 consecutive. 

Illinois, 7-14; not less than no days annually. 

Indiana, 7-14 inclusive; while the schools are in session. 

Iowa, reached 7, not passed 14; 16 consecutive weeks. 

Kansas, 8-15; while school is in session. If 14 and regularly 
employed for self-support or that of dependents, 8 consecu- 
tive weeks. 

Kentucky, 7-14; for full term in cities of the i, 2, 3, and 4 class. 
Otherwise, annually, 8 weeks consecutive. 

Louisiana, none. 

Maine, between 7 and the 15th anniversary of birth; full session. 

Maryland, none. 

Massachusetts, 7-14 ; entire session. 

Michigan, 7 through 15; entire session. 

Minnesota, 8-16; entire session. 

SI 



52 Registration of City School Children 

Mississippi, none. 

Missouri, 8-14; and 14-16 unless regularly employed; half the 
session. 

Montana, 8-14; full time, not less than 16 weeks from the begin- 
ning of the term. 

Nebraska, all under 16, full time of session. This applies only in 
cities. 

Nevada, 8-16; during the time that the school is in session. Atten- 
dance is excused when the labor of the child is necessary for 
its own or its parents' support. 

New Hampshire, 8-16; 12 weeks, 6 consecutive. 

New Jersey, 7-17; all sessions unless over 15 and has completed 
the elementary school course. Absentees under 15 are truants. 

New York, 7-14; entire session; 14-16, if illiterate. 

North Carolina, the general assembly is empowered to enact that 
all 6-18 shall attend 16 months. 

North Dakota, 8-14; entire term. 

Ohio, 8-14; full time, not less than 24 weeks from the beginning. 

Oregon, 9-14; four months. 

Pennsylvania, 81-14; entire session, not less than 70 days; 14-16 
if illiterate or unemployed. 

Rhode Island, 7-15; unless graduated from school. 

South Carolina, none. 

South Dakota, 8-13; 8-12 if destitute; 13-14 unless lawfully 
employed; 12 weeks, 8 consecutive. 

Tennessee, none. 

Texas, none. 

Utah, 8-16; 20 weeks, 10 consecutive; in cities of the ist class 
30 weeks, 10 consecutive unless services are needed to sup- 
port mother or invalid father. 

Vermont, 8-15; 28 weeks consecutive, beginning with the school 
year. 

Virginia, none. 

Washington, 8-15; 4 months; in cities, 7-15, 6 months, 3 months 
consecutive. 

West Virginia, 8-14; 20 weeks from the beginning. 

Wisconsin, 7-14; if unemployed 14-16. Cities of the first class, 
all sessions ; other cities, 8 months ; towns, 6 months. 

Wyoming, 7-16; 3 months each year. 



Compulsory Education Laws 53 

Digest of the Census Laws of the Several States 

Alabama, none. 

Arizona, complete adult census on request, for municipal corpo- 
ration within the school district. 

Arkansas, none. 

California, annually, i5-30th of April, all children under 17 
except tribal Indians ; house to house count by actual obser- 
vation and interview, and in cities a report back to the Board 
of Education. 

Colorado, annual, 6-21, apparently for school appropriation only. 

Connecticut, annually in October ; 4, under 16, inclusive. Agents 
compare lists with school registers. Cost under " Support 
of public schools." 

Delaware, none. 

Florida, none. 

Georgia, decennially ( ?) 6-18. Taken in 1888 and in 1893, with 
a recommendation to take a house to house census oftener 
than every 10 years. 

Idaho, annually, 6-21, in September by the Clerk of the District. 

Illinois, no specific regulation. Township Board does it, or that 
failing, the county superintendent. 

Indiana, annually, between the loth and 30th of April ; 6-21 by the 
school trustees of the township, towns, or cities. 

Iowa, annually, June 1-15, ages 7-14, names, ages, sex, parents' 
or guardian's name, with the number of days' attendance 
of each pupil, and the reason for non-attendance if for less 
than 16 weeks. 

Kansas, the law does not specify any particular method for 
cities, merely saying that a census is made. 

Kentucky, annually, in April, 6-20. Report to the County Super- 
intendent and clerk of the County Court. 

Louisiana, before July i, 1899, and every 4 years thereafter; 
6-18, in triplicate for the State Board; Auditor of Public 
Accounts ; and the Parish. 

Maine, annually, correct to April ist; 5-21, by the Superintendent 
of Schools. Sent to the State Superintendent. 

Maryland, none. 

Massachusetts, annually by the school committee of each city, 
September, and completed before November 15; 5-15, and 
all minors over 14 not able to read and write. 



54 Registration of City School Children 

Michigan, annually; 15 days preceding the first Monday in June; 

5-19- 

Minnesota, the reports of attendance are the basis of apportion- 
ment. There is no city census. 

Mississippi, none, 

Missouri, none. 

Montana, annually, between September ist and 20th, by the 
school clerk; all 6-21; sex, names, parents or guardians. 
Separate list of all under 6 with sex. Separate census of 
deaf, dumb, and feeble-minded. 

Nebraska, annually, 5-21. 

Nevada, annually, between May ist and 31st. Over 6 and under 
18. Report results to the County Superintendent before 
June 15th. Name, color, age, sex, father's name. " Where 
practicable " the census marshal shall visit the home and 
enumerate by actual observation. He may administer oath. 

New Hampshire, annually, during the " fall term," 5-16. Before 
1895 made by tax assessors; since then by truant officers or 
agent of the Board. 

New Jersey, may not be taken oftener than every 5 years and 
not in the years when a state census or a national census is 
taken. Payment of 4 cents per name by the district. 

New York, in cities of the ist class with a permanent census 
board to be taken in October, 1909, and kept thereafter cur- 
rent by amendment from day to day. Taken and amended 
by the police ; all, 4-18. In cities without a board, in October, 
1909, and every 4 years thereafter. Cost defrayed by the 
city or district ; but in cities without a board and in districts, 
repaid by State. 

North Carolina, none. 

North Dakota, annually, in June, 6-20. None specifically for cities. 

Ohio, annually, in the 2 weeks ending on the 4th Saturday in 
May; all unmarried youth, with sex, between 6 and 21, in 
4 groups: 6-8; 8-14; 14-16; 16-21, also of blind, deaf, and 
imbecile. 

Oregon, incomplete data. Annually, 4-20. 

Pennsylvania, annually, at the spring registration of voters ; 6-16; 
name, birth, age, sex, nationality, residence, school district, 



Compulsory Education Laws 55 

parent or guardian, name and location of school, or cause 
of non-enrollment, and, if under i6, name and address of 
employer. May be made by attendance officers. The secre- 
tary of the school district shall furnish each principal or 
teacher with a list of the children in his district. 

Rhode Island, annually, in January, 5-15 inclusive. Cost payable 
from appropriations for public schools. 

South Carolina, none. 

South Dakota, annually, for the year ending in June. 

Tennessee, annually, in June by the District Clerks; 6-21. 

Texas, house-to-house census, apparently for apportionment only. 
The State Report is rather detailed but gives no age group- 
ing, merely stating " over school age," " under school age." 

Utah, annually. In cities of the ist and 2d classes, July 15-31. 
In other districts between the ist and 3d Monday in July. 
Over 6 under 18; name, age, sex, color. Separate census 
for deaf, dumb, blind. 

Vermont, annually, by the Clerk of the School Board, before 
February ist; name, age, parent, guardian. He receives 
from the town, 4 cents for the name of each person of school 
age. 

Virginia, apparently none. The State Superintendent pnnts 
under certain age groups, 7-9, 10-14, 15-17, 18-20, totals 
of children, presumably enrollment. 

Washington, annually, in June; 8-15. 

West Virginia, annually; 6-21, married, single, black, white. No 
date given in report. 

Wisconsin, annually, between July loth and 15th. All 4-20 by 
district clerk, sworn statement to town clerk of the number, 
names, ages, sex, parents, or guardians. 

Wyoming, incomplete reports. 

State Censuses Taken Apparently with the Idea of Con- 
trolling Attendance 

Alabama, none. 
Arizona, none. 
Arkansas, none. 
California, none. 

Colorado, " in all cases a copy shall be kept in the office of the 
Secretary." The census goes to the county superintendent, 



56 Registration of City School Children 

and in districts of the first class (over i,ooo) or second 
class (350-1,000) to the principal teacher or superintendent. 

Connecticut, school visitors are to compare the annual October 
lists with the registers. 

Delaware, none. 

Florida, none. 

Georgia, none. 

Idaho, section iioo of the Laws of 1905 requires that the Board 
of Trustees of each district furnish, on or before the first 
Monday in September, the principal in each public school, 
a list of all children 8-14 years of age, taken from the school 
census marshal. 

Illinois, none. 

Indiana, the enumeration is filed with the County Superintendent, 
but on the first day of school the trustees or commissioners 
furnish the truant officers with the names of children of com- 
pulsory school age that are enumerated on the lists. 

Iowa, none specifically for the control of attendance, but the 
census should show the number of days' attendance of each 
pupil and cause of non-attendance. Probably for appro- 
priation of state money. 

Kansas, the law reads in part : " In order that the Compulsory 
Education Act may be more definitely enforced, it is pro^ 
vided that enumerators shall ascertain annually, etc." 

Kentucky, none. 

Louisiana, none. 

Maine, none. 

Maryland, none. 

Massachusetts, not definite, but cf, the report from Springfield 
quoted post, Ch. X. 

Michigan, Act 200 of 1905 : Secretary of the Board of Educa- 
tion at the commencement of school, furnishes a copy of 
the last school census to the superintendent of the school. 
It is the duty of the superintendent to compare the list with 
the enrollment at the opening of school, and to report to 
the truant officer the names of those not attending. In 
rural schools the teacher gets such a list. 

Minnesota, none. 

Mississippi, none. 



Compulsory Education Laws 57 

Missouri, none. 

Montana, monthly, every month from September to June, all 
principals and teachers of public, private, and parochial 
schools, report names, ages, and residences, of all pupils in 
attendance at the school " to facilitate the carrying out of 
this act." (i.e., the compulsory education act.) (Note 
that the school lists go to the clerk and not the clerk's lists 
to the school, hence the law hardly helps to enforce com- 
pulsory attendance unless the clerk compares the lists and 
follows up the cases. Nothing is said about his duty so to 
do.) 

Nebraska, no specific census to control attendance. 

Nevada, Art. XVIII, Laws 1905 : It is the duty of the Board 
of Trustees to furnish the principal of each school with a 
list of all children 8-14, taken from the report of the school 
census marshal. At the beginning of each school month 
thereafter it is the duty of the principal to report back. 
(This clause was apparently a dead letter, according to the 
report of State Supt. Orvis Ring, 1907-1908, and was re- 
pealed March, 1909. There is now no checking of the 
census lists.) 

New Hampshire, nothing specific, but the census is made in the 
fall " so that it may correspond with the enrollment in 
school." 

New Jersey, none. 

New York, see post, Ch. VIII, where the law is given in full. 
To be taken in October 1909 and " amended from day to 
day by the police " ; 4-18. A permanent census board in 
cities of the first class. In other cities the census is to 
be taken every 4 years if there is no census board. 

North Carolina, none. 

North Dakota, none. 

Ohio, none specific ; all teachers must report monthly from Sep- 
tember to June, on proper blanks, the names, ages, and resi- 
dences of pupils. (Cf. Montana.) 

Oregon, nothing specific. " The compulsory law is just begin- 
ning to be efifective." (State Report for 1908.) 

Pennsylvania, the assessors' lists are forwarded by them to the 
county commissioners who send them in turn to- the secre- 



58 Registration of City School Children 

tary of the school district prior to July 15, and he furnishes 
the principal of each school. 

An enumeration by attendance officers may be authorized. 

Rhode Island, see post, Ch. VII, where the section is given in 
full. The relation of the law of compulsory education 
to the school census law does not appear in the statute 
book, but the laws are so prosecuted by the supervisor of 
school census, who is also truant officer, that they really do 
mutually contribute to each other. 

South Carolina, none. 

South Dakota, none. 

Tennessee, none. 

Texas, has a house to house census but apparently only for ap- 
propriation of funds. The system is elaborate. 

Utah, none. 

Vermont, the clerk of the Board of School Directors on or 
before the first day of each term provides the teacher of 
each school with a list containing the names and ages of 
those required to attend the school during the term. 

Virginia, none. 

Washington, the secretary of the Board of Directors of the sev- 
eral cities shall furnish the truant officers the names of all 
children between 7-15 found on the census rolls of the 
current year and not enrolled in any of the public day 
schools of the city. At the end of the first month of school, 
it is the duty of the teacher to report to the clerk of the 
district the names and ages of all children enrolled and at- 
tending, and the number of days attendance. 

(Note that this makes no provision for parochial or pri- 
vate schools.) 

West Virginia, " Principals and superintendents of graded schools 
shall report to the truant officers all cases of the violation 
of this act among the enumerated youth of the district, and 
assist in the carrying out of the act " (the compulsory edu- 
cation act). The enumeration is made by the teachers of 
the district at the command of the Board. 

Wisconsin, the law is primarily for appropriation, but amend- 
ment of 1907 seems to make the law apply to compulsory 
education, for sec. 439c, b demands the census in triplicate. 



Compulsory Education Laws 59 

One copy goes to the superintendent and one to the teacher 
or principal when school opens. The clerk's office is to be 
open to principals and teachers to help enforce the com- 
pulsory education law. All teachers of private and paro- 
chial schools must keep such a record. It is the duty of 
superintendents to compare the reports of attendance and 
enrollment with the census reports and ascertain the names 
of all children not complying with the law and report to 
the truant officer such names. 
Wyoming, none. 



CHAPTER V 

PHILADELPHIA 

History of the School Census Law 
Estimated population 1906, 1,441,735; area, 81,828 acres. 
After a long campaign in the press, the first compulsory edu- 
cation law of Pennsylvania, the Farr law, was passed January 
28, 1895. Five years later it was declared to be a dead letter, 
certainly so for Philadelphia where it was never operative. It 
was amended July 12, 1897. The enrollment made in May 1897 
by the assessors of voters, proved, like its predecessors, to be 
utterly untrustworthy. In November 1897, the Board of Public 
Education took advantage of a clause in the law and placed its 
execution for that city under Superintendent Brooks. The city 
was divided into 30 districts, and 25 men and 5 women took the 
enumeration. There was no attempt made to force the incor- 
rigible or vicious into school. On July 11, 1901, the bill was 
amended again although much of the wording of the 1897 
measure was retained. In 1902 the Bureau of Compulsory Edu- 
cation was formed and took over the work of the enumeration 
of school children. Its reports have been irregular and the 
statistics are practically never compared with each other and 
no percentages are worked out. It has been difficult to get out 
of them figures that mean anything, owing to the peculiar and 
sometimes unmeaning classifications, and the lack of continuity 
of the items. For instance, the report for 1902 gives only a 
total, and the figures had to be obtained by special request. They 
are for male and female only. The figures for 1903 are for male 
and female, but those for 1904 are for male, female, white, and 
colored. The figures for 1905 are given in the same way, while 
those for 1906 and 1907 were not published but had to be ob- 
tained by request. This renders the comparison of the efficiency 
of the Bureau in the various years difficult. (Cf. post. Value 
of the Statistics.) 
60 



Philadelphia 6 1 

Present Object of the School Census in Philadelphia 
It will be seen from the history of the school census in Phila- 
delphia that it came to be taken by the Board of Public Educa- 
tion as a means of securing, from the state, an adequate appro- 
priation of the state money devoted to educational purposes. 
The discrepancy in the figures of the City Commissioners and 
the school authorities was so glaring, that the impression, even 
to-day, still largely prevails that the main object of the census 
is to find out hoiv many children of school age there are in 
Philadelphia. This factor seems to loom largest in the eyes 
of the enumerators. Next in importance, comes its application 
in regard to compulsory education and the checking of attempts 
at evading the requirement of the compulsory attendance law. 
It is to be admitted that ascertaining the number of children 
is an extremely important function of the census, but it is obvious 
that the efificacy of the information will depend upon its ac- 
curacy. The accuracy is dependent upon a variety of considera- 
tions, not the least among which are: the conviction on the part 
of parents and guardians that the Board keeps a continuous and 
reverified record; the time of the year when the enumeration is 
taken ; the nationality of parents ; the financial standing of 
parents ; the prosperity of the " times " ; and the conscientious 
character and general intelligence of the enumerators. 

The Census and the Bureau of Compulsory Education 
The Philadelphia school census has for its chief officer one 
whose significant title is, " Chief of the Bureau of Compulsory 
Education." Under him there are an assistant, 4 clerks (2 of 
whom are stenographers) and 43 attendance officers. The attend- 
ance officers are the field officers and their results are largely codi- 
fied and arranged by the office force, though the attendance officers 
themselves submit a weekly report (v. app. 23) showing what 
ground has been covered, and, in a general way, the results of 
the enumeration. The time of the office and field forces devoted 
to the enumeration is about 7 weeks. The law requires that the 
list of children belonging to a school be furnished to the school, 
and accordingly a duplicate list was made on cards. One set, on 
white cards, was kept at the Bureau and a sheet list was sent 
to the school. Later, a yellow card list was used instead of the 
sheet list. (See Appendix 21 for these card forms.) 



62 Registration of City School Children _ 

Latterly, however, this use of the yellow cards has been dis- 
continued except for those reported to attendance officers, and 
they are thus employed now only in case of supposed truancy; 
and no lists, in spite of the law% are furnished to the schools. 
(Cf. the letter of the Philadelphia school principal, post, Scope of 
the School Censiis.} 

Theoretically the school list method is ideal, but the American 
community is not yet able to work it out. (Compare the case of 
West Virginia, Michigan, Nevada, Ch. X.) 

Scope of the School Census 
The scope of the school census is best understood by reading 
the law of July, 1901. This act. No. 335, is the chief legislative 
enactment in regard to the compulsory education of children in 
Pennsylvania, and section 4 of it refers to the taking of the school 
census. That section reads as follows : 

" It shall be the duty of the assessors of voters of every district, 
when not notified to the contrary by the school board, at the 
spring registration of voters or as soon as possible thereafter, to 
make, in a substantial book, provided by the Superintendent of 
Public Instruction at the expense of the State, for that purpose, a 
careful and correct list of all children between the ages of six and 
sixteen within his district, giving the full name, date of birth, age, 
sex, nationality, residence, sub-school district, name and address 
of parent or person in parental relation, and the name and location 
of the school where the child is enrolled, or the cause of non- 
enrollment and the name and address of the employer of any 
child under sixteen years of age that is engaged in any regular 
employment or service; which enumeration, after approval by the 
secretary of the said school district, shall be returned by the said 
assessor to the county commissioners of the county in which the 
enumeration is made, whose duty it shall be to forward the same, 
or a certified copy thereof, to the secretary of the proper school 
district, prior to July fifteenth of each year, who shall immediately 
furnish the principal or teacher of each school with a correct list of 
all children in his or her district who are subject to the provisions 
of this act ; and the said county commissioners shall furnish a 
summary of such statistics to the Superintendent of Public In- 
struction upon blanks provided by the State. And the said as- 
sessors shall be paid, out of the county funds, a per diem com- 
pensation for their services, a sum equal to the compensation paid 
under existing laws for assessors of election ; said services not to 
exceed ten days : Provided, That prior to February first of any 
year, any board of directors or controllers of any school district 



Philadelphia 63 

may authorize such enumeration to be made by the attendance 
officers or other persons, at the expense of the school district, 
under the same conditions as herein provided for assessors : Pro- 
vided further, That the attendance officers, if there be any, or the 
superintendent of schools, or the secretary of the school board, 
shall have the power to add to this register the names of children 
within the prescribed ages whose names do not appear thereon." 

It will be seen that the law allows the enumeration to be made 
by attendance officers at the expense of the school district for 
which they make it. The original reason for making a census, 
apportionment of funds, appears only between the lines. In 
Philadelphia, the assessors formerly took the census, but so in- 
adequately that the method was changed.^ 

The more recent notion of the relation of the census to com- 
pulsory education appears in the lines : " Who shall immediately 
furnish the principal or teacher of each school with a correct list 
of all children in his or her district who are subject to the provi- 
sions of the act." This means, so far as Philadelphia is concerned, 
that to the principal was to get a list of the children that were 
said by the parents to be in that principal's school, or who ought, 
by law, to be in that school. 

But how this was working in 1908 may be seen from the fol- 
lowing letter from a principal in one of the Philadelphia schools, 
who is deeply interested in the problem of compulsory education 
and the head of a large school in the most crowded quarter of that 
city: 

" In reply to your note of October 24th, I need not express an 
opinion on your first question, since the compulsory education 
bureau did not send lists of names to the schools this fall. Ac- 
cording to our attendance officer, the department did not believe 
the results from these lists to be very satisfactory. Owing to the 
varied spelling of names, and possibly to the superficial examina- 
tion of the lists by schools, the returns from these lists were not 
considered of great value. In some cases the lists were not re- 
turned for three months after the opening of the fall term, and 
in other cases they were never examined by principal or teachers. 
This year, after the census was taken, the cards were sorted in 

'The Superintendent of Altoona in his report for 1907 says that the 
assessors returned 8,071 children; that the Board of Education's house- 
to-house canvass gave a total of 9,352; and that on the school rolls 
appeared 8,693 different pupils enrolled, plus 550 obtaining working 
certificates, and 1886 in parochial schools, total 11,129. 



64 Registration of City School Children 

the office of the Compulsory Bureau, the lists were made of those 
that were not enrolled in any school in order that the attendance 
officers might visit the homes and see that these children were 
placed in schools. Principals are expected to give to the attend- 
ance officer, for investigation, all cases of pupils on roll in their 
school who have not returned to the fall session. Whether or not 
this is being done, I cannot tell you. In our school we have done 
this except in cases where pupils of proper age had left to go to 
work and in which we were satisfied of the issuance, in proper 
form, of a working certificate." 

It will be seen from this that the lists of those looked up by 
officers after the census returns were in, were only those that were 
reported by parents as not employed legally and not attending. 

Census Districts 

The districts assigned to the census enumerators are political 
divisions known as wards. They are not school districts under 
one district superintendent ; they are not school districts supplying 
pupils for any one school or number of schools. There are no 
" district lines " determining the area over which a school shall 
exert power to draw pupils. 

The census enumerator that works in the ward is he whose 
usual school work carries him over the whole ward or most of it so 
that he is more familiar with it than is any other attendance offi- 
cer. This is essential, since the best enumerating can be done 
only by one that is familiar with conditions, who knows the new 
houses and the character of the old ones. 

The desirability of grouping by wards is questionable. It is 
convenient and, to the cursory reader of school reports, means 
something. But really a ward grouping means little since ward 
lines are, or have been, gerrymandered. Ward 29 in the census 
statistics shows a decrease in school population for 1908 because 
it was divided into wards 29 and 47. This fact would be lost 
sight of in a year or two and the reason for the falling off of 
the school population would appear inexplicable to the reader.^ 

Then again, no conception of the crowded condition of a ward 
can be obtained unless the Area of the ward is printed alongside 
the figures for the school population. To make the tables con- 
cerning Philadelphia more intelligible there should be a map and 

^ Cf. Detroit, post Ch. VII. — what is said about enumeration by 
wards. 



Philadelphia 



65 



a table of areas accompanying the figures for school population. 
If the figures in school reports are to come to mean anything to 
the ordinary reader, as suggested by Snedden and Allen in 




Map of Philadelphia showing Wards. 

" School Reports and School Efficiency," such explanatory matter 
should accompany the tables. 

(Cf. map of Philadelphia and table of area of wards and school 
population over a number of years.) 



66 



Registration of City School Children 
School Population 6-i6, Philadelphia 



























School 




Area 






1904 




1905 


190 


6 


1907 




popula- 


Ward 


in 
sq. miles 


1902 


1903 


















tion 

per 

sq. mile 








Total 


Negro 


Total 


Negro 


Total 


Negro 


Total 


Negro 


I. . . . 


. 700 


7,133 


7,503 


7,790 


84 


8,108 


61 


8,258 


50 


8, 940 


16 


12,771 


2. . . . 


• 442 


6,228 


6,483 


6, 262 


100 


7,196 


153 


7,180 


146 


7,852 


106 


17,764 


3 • • ■ . 


.191 


4-245 


4, 609 


4,075 


189 


4,725 


243 


4,963 


175 


5,014 


148 


26,251 


4- • .. 


. 229 


3.635 


3,813 


4,071 


247 


4,187 


246 


4,282 


231 


4.253 


207 


18,572 


s.. ■ • 


.321 


2,891 


2,938 


2,973 


64 


2,633 


92 


2,810 


68 


3.034 


64 


9,451 


6 


.321 


1,25s 


1, 256 


1,210 


4 


1.032 


11 


1,198 


3 


1.103 


7 


3.436 


7.. . ■ 


■ 439 


2,640 


2,623 


3,054 


1,144 


2,951 


1,038 


3,086 


1,115 


3,235 


1.149 


7.569 


8 


.435 


543 


862 


687 


128 


883 


176 


909 


165 


920 


176 


2. 115 


Q. . . . 


.400 


667 


553 


568 


43 


SIS 


67 


524 


164 


427 


108 


1,068 


lO. . . . 


• 359 


1 ,224 


I , 402 


1,567 


91 


2.474 


24 


1,871 


98 


1,560 


37 


4. 345 


II. . . . 


. 210 


1,739 


1,791 


1,882 





2,176 


7 


2, 290 


8 


2,014 


6 


9.590 


12. . . . 


.193 


1,639 


1,866 


2,248 


41 


2,194 


42 


2 , 262 


43 


2,247 


32 


11 , 642 


13. . . • 


.259 


1 ,619 


1,944 


1.914 


73 


2,175 


65 


2 , 269 


70 


2 , 267 


89 


8,753 


14. . . . 


.237 


1,772 


1,964 


2,011 


251 


2, 1 65 


269 


2 ,056 


246 


2 , 626 


555 


11 ,080 


15. . ■ • 


1.049 


5,716 


5,265 


5,413 


218 


5,678 


219 


6,014 


292 


5,750 


251 


5,481 


16... . 


.281 


2,682 


2,511 


3,00s 


12 


2,569 


11 


2,972 


9 


2,992 


2 


10,647 


17. . • • 


.251 


3,109 


3,191 


3,125 


15 


3,07s 


17 


3,05s 


10 


3,083 


27 


12,283 


18... . 


.650 


4,864 


4, 900 


4,918 


3 


4,89s 


2 


4,831 





4,721 





7,263 


19.. . . 


.698 


9,539 


9,645 


9,954 


20 


9.725 


22 


9 , 202 


24 


9,038 


28 


12 , 948 


20. . . . 


• 734 


5,880 


5,797 


5,917 


431 


6,065 


445 


6,050 


494 


6,41s 


S8i 


8,739 


21. . . . 


7-129 


5,489 


5,883 


5,970 


75 


6,184 


79 


6,084 


94 


6,183 


83 


867 


22. . . . 


10.741 


8,559 


8,851 


9,159 


507 


8,744 


420 


8,880 


334 


9,199 


46s 


856 


23. . . • 


3.205 


4,552 


4,716 


4, 621 


113 


4.924 


146 


5,153 


149 


5.365 


146 


1,674 


24.. . . 


4.150 


7,252 


7,987 


8,301 


297 


7,930 


281 


8,285 


382 


8,334 


408 


2 ,008 


2S. . . • 


1 . 100 


9,340 


10, 141 


10,317 


28 


10, 648 


44 


10,952 


37 


7 ,601 


7 


6,910 


26.. .. 


1 .400 


7,370 


7 , 606 


7,679 


488 


8,029 


3SI 


8,060 


463 


8,525 


62S 


6,089 


27.. . . 


I. 510 


3,919 


4,341 


4, 266 


364 


5, 210 


384 


5,282 


337 


2 , 219 


268 


1,469 


28 


1 .024 


7,449 


7,380 


7,388 


146 


7.433 


146 


7,438 


158 


7,360 


141 


7,187 


29.. . . 


.822 


9,109 


9,294 


9 ,020 


482 


9.067 


458 


8,376 


444 


8,416 


578 


10,238 


30. . . • 


.519 


4,057 


4,125 


4. 226 


890 


4. 103 


908 


3,945 


926 


4,132 


1,085 


7,961 


31.. . . 


.713 


5,873 


6,140 


6,268 





6,293 





6,259 





6,016 





8,437 


32 


.809 


5,667 


5,480 


5.610 


69 


4.434 


107 


4,447 


116 


4,495 


124 


5,556 


33. . . . 


2.983 


14,017 


14, 110 


14,936 


174 


15,094 


161 


8,988 


28 


9,577 


31 


3,210 


34.. . 


4.407 


8,548 


8,774 


9,416 


217 


10,551 


246 


11,703 


295 


6,000 


lis 


1.366 


35- . • 


33.261 


1,112 


1,346 


1,405 


45 


1,473 


31 


1,630 


46 


1,711 


44 


„5i 


36... 


6.081 


9,052 


9,899 


10, 225 


316 


11,339 


S14 


11,817 


469 


10 , 989 


684 


1,807 


37.. • 


.520 


3,487 


3,226 


3,487 


37 


3.324 


37 


3,350 


40 


3,286 


45 


6,319 


38... 


3.990 


5,726 


6,020 


6,173 


38 


6 , 200 


52 


5,875 


63 


6,462 


69 


1 , 619 


39-. • 


4. 809 


6,940 


7,225 


7.499 


41 


7.739 


165 


9,034 


156 


9, 669 


14s 


2 ,010 


40.. . 


8.089 


4,032 


4,499 


4,956 


147 


5,020 


181 


S.19S 


157 


5,555 


169 


686 


41 


6.250 


1,649 


2,050 


2,054 


15 


2,032 


13 


2 ,026 


9 


2, 165 


6 


346 


42.. . 


9.163 


2, 204 


2 ,099 


2,288 


50 


2,399 


36 


2,680 


43 


2 , 916 


52 


3i8 


43. • • 


1. 461 














S,9I9 


139 


6,068 


45 


4,153 


44.. . 
45. • . 


I. 168 
3 . 100 


















6,231 
3.870 


162 
29 


5 , 335 


















1,248 


46.. . 


2.800 


















3.249 


83 


I , i5o 


47 


.578 
129.583 

























204,423 


212, 308 


217,936 


7,697 


223,591 


7,989 


227,370 


8^295 


233.084 


9, 201 





Philadelphia 67 

Value of Statistics 
Some light in regard to the problem of the colored child in 
Philadelphia can be secured through the census grouping. (Cf. 
ante, school population 6-16, Philadelphia.) Dr. Brumbaugh 
in his report for 1907 shows the necessity for considering the 
situation studiously, and the census figures ought to mean much 
to the Board that plans new school houses. Dr. Brumbaugh 
says : 

" The City of Philadelphia has a larger population of colored 
people than any other city in the North. It sends a larger group 
of colored children to the public schools than any other city in the 
country. These children attend for the most part the schools 
nearest to their places of residence. In a few cases separate 
buildings have been provided, in which colored children have been 
placed under colored teachers, and wherever this has been done, 
it has been found to accomplish two important results : First, it 
has given to the colored child better opportunity to move at its 
own rate of progress through the materials of the curriculum, 
which rate of progress is in some respects different from the rate 
of progress of other children. Second, it has enabled the Board 
of Education to give employment to a group of deserving members 
of the colored race, who by industry and capacity have won their 
certificates to teach in the public schools of the city. 

Both of these are matters of moment and wherever the colored 
parents will join in petition to the Board for a school organized 
on this basis, I earnestly recommend that such school be estab- 
lished. It is possible, however, that in some sections of the city 
the parents of these children will not so petition the Board, but, 
on the contrary, will insist that their children remain in the divi- 
sions where they now attend school. 

Here a really difficult situation presents itself. The fact is, that 
when the percentage of colored children reaches thirty or more 
the other children begin gradually to withdraw from the school. 
This fact, coupled with the additional fact that there are a number 
of qualified colored teachers in the city who are not at the present 
time in the employment of the Board of Education, leads me to 
suggest that wherever possible, separate schools should be in- 
augurated for the colored children." 

The relation of the statistics to the deductions therefrom is thus 
illustrated. They could doubtless be made to show many more 
valuable facts in regard to nationality, etc., that ought to be of 
the utmost importance in establishing a school or outlining a cur- 
riculum. 



68 Registration of City School Children 

As has been suggested before, the figures of the report are not 
always to be relied on. As an example of probable inaccuracy, 
take these figures from the reports of 1903, 1904, and 1905 : 

Total No. Children 6-16 Year No. Illegally Employed Per Cent. 

212,308 1903 234 ii-ioo of I 

217,935 1904 144 6-100 of I 

223,591 1905 295 13-100 of I 

and couple with them this statement from the 1905 report: 

Number of children 13-14 employed previous to the new law's 
going into effect (that raised the age of compulsory attendance to 
14 years), 2148. 

These two sets of figures for 1905 do not agree. In the first 
case we have only 295 children illegally employed, whereas in the 
second case we have 2,148 as the number of children 13-14 em- 
ployed. This is either an error, or else 2,148 minus 295 is the 
number of children 13-14 that stopped work or reported them- 
selves legally employed. Those that have any dealings with the 
problem of the child approaching the age permitting him to leave 
school legally, know that the latter alternative is the one that would 
be followed. But as in the case of the other figures nothing can 
be proved because there is no background against which to check 
the discrepancy. 

Enumerators 
The enumerators in Philadelphia are the attendance officers 
who are employed two extra months after regular school duties 
are over in order to secure the figures. The work was at one 
time done by the police, as in New York, but the returns were 
unsatisfactory. In the earlier days it was done by the assessors 
of voters, but with equally unsatisfactory results. Thus the chief 
of the Bureau of Compulsory Education writes under date of 
December 31st, 1905, in his report for 1905, p. 6. 

" The law of compulsory attendance requires a census of chil- 
dren between 6 and 16 years, to be taken each year either by 
the attendance officers of the Board of Public Education or by 
the assessors. The last four years the census has been taken 
by the attendance officers under the supervision of the Bureau 
of Compulsory Education, but in comparing the returns made 
by the assessors when they have taken a census for the biennial 
appropriation from the State for the public schools, with the 
census taken by the attendance officers under the law of com- 



Philadelphia 69 

pulsory attendance, there has always been a considerable de- 
crease in the number of children in the census taken by the as- 
sessors.^ Not only does the city suffer a great loss for schools 
from the State appropriation's being less than should be appro- 
priated, but the city also suffers a loss to pay the assessors to 
perform the work that has usually been done by the attendance 
officers. The census of 1905, taken by the attendance officers 
shows that there are 223,591 children between 6 and 16 years 
of age, and the one just taken by the assessors shows but 199,- 
099, a difference of 22),6g2,'^ The difference is even more fla- 
grant when a comparison is made by the different wards. If 
the law could be changed to have the attendance officers of the 
Board of Public Education take the census for the State appro- 
priation for the public schools, as well as to take the census 
between the same ages as required by the law of compulsory 
attendance, an annual appropriation of about $75,000 would be 
added to the school fund during the next two years." 

The enumeration really begins about the middle of June and 
lasts about 7 weeks. This time of the year is chosen because 
the enumerators have practically concluded their regular attend- 
ance work by June 15, and their services can be retained through- 
out the year by giving them employment during July and August. 

Philadelphia has an area of 129.583 square miles, with a popu- 
lation in 1900 of 1,293,697. Forty-three enumerators are em- 
ployed to do the counting. The table, ante, shows the distribu- 
tion of school population. When an enumerator finishes his own 
district, he reports to headquarters and is assigned to help some 
other enumerator not finished. 

Section 16, paragraph 5, of the By-Laws of the Board re- 
quires the City Superintendent to limit himself, in nominating to 
fill vacancies or to supply additional positions among attendance 
officers, to the names that stand highest on an eligible list made 
after an examination or examinations of the educational qualifi- 
cations of the persons that attend the examination, coupled with 
an inquiry into their fitness in other respects. 

This ought to ensure the employment of competent men, but 
there is some doubt as to whether the word examinations has 
not allowed a temporary lowering of the usual standard in order 
to allow a favored candidate to pass. 

^ i. e. The assessors' figures show fewer children than do those of the 
attendance officers. 

* The arithmetic is the chief's own. 



yo Registration of City School Children 

Of his own knowledge, on the other hand, the writer may say, 
of those officers with whom it was his good fortune to help 
take the census, that they were thoroughly competent men, know- 
ing their districts well, alert, conscientious, hard-working, per- 
sistent, tactful and resourceful. He may add, too, that he saw 
enough to convince him that not all the staff are as good. 

An effort is made to assure at once in June returns from those 
districts in which the families are most likely to leave town for 
the summer or for part of the summer. 

The enumerators do not work in the street on Saturday. 
Enumerator C, whose showing for one day is given post, re- 
ported as follows for his first four weeks of 1908, 937 (court 
prosecutions taking up part of his time); 1,100; 1,060; 1,000. 
He has about 9,200 children to enumerate in 7 weeks of 5 days 
each. As his district is large, he is helped, toward the close, 
by those that have already finished their own districts. He be- 
lieves that these 35 days could be distributed over the year, one 
day a week, and the enumeration kept fairly up to date. 

Method of Enumeration 

The enumeration is made during the summer months, as has 
been said, in order to hold the services of attendance officers that 
otherwise would be paid only for actual work as attendance 
officers during the school year, and whose co-operation during 
the summer months would, accordingly, be lost. These men are 
paid $750 for the regular 10 months' work and $150 more for 
the two extra summer months' work. 

There are 43 of them and they work 5 days a week for 7 
weeks securing from 160 to 200 names of children of school 
age per day. On rainy days or days of excessive heat they may 
secure fewer. Many of them work from 8 a. m. to 3 p. m. 
without lunch, and with such alleviations of thirst as can be 
secured from considerate householders. The hour is not pri- 
marily regarded as the end of the working day, but the attain- 
ment of the quota of names that has to be sent in, with the area 
covered, on the weekly report. 

The enumerators know, from the figures of the preceding year, 
about how many names they have to secure, and they estimate 
how many names they must take per day in order to cover the 
territory in the 7 weeks. There is no premium for rapid or 



Philadelphia 7 \ 

effective work, no vacation to be earned by getting through the 
district ahead of anyone else, as those that finish first are re- 
assigned to the larger wards to assist. 

There is practically no check on the thoroughness of the work. 

The monthly salary is superior as a method of remuneration 
to any per capita allowance, such as is made in Massachusetts of 
5 cents a name, a system that is bound to lead to padding, but 
the rate of payment in Philadelphia for the kind of work de- 
manded is too small. The salary ought to be larger and paid 
by the year. There could be a corresponding increase in the 
efiiciency of the force. At present, the Committee of Attendance 
Officers are trying to secure such concessions from the City 
Council and have named their figure at $i,000. In the opinion 
of the writer the salary should be $1,200 with such other admin- 
istration as will appear later. At present the salary must pur- 
chase all the stamps for the sending of the " preliminary notices '' 
which the law of compulsory attendance demands, and pay car 
fare to the homes of those persons served with a summons (as 
the service must be personal), to courts where prosecutions are 
held, and tips to those that may " for a consideration " give just 
the necessary information as to the whereabouts of a rascally 
parent that may lead to his apprehension by the law. 

The enumeration is made in lead pencil in a street book 8^ 
inches x 12 inches with oak tag covers, containing 60 pages of 
22 lines (in 1908) each and bound by 2 slender wire binders. 
The enumerators seem to have got used to this style of book 
and not to think it awkward. Some carry a stiff insert to act 
as a writing back, but most of them double the book over. The 
flimsy binding is then very apt to give way. 

The general arrangement of details may be seen from Ap- 
pendix 22. 

Not all enumerators follow the same plan in enumerating. 
Some prefer to make all entries in the street; others use their 
book of the preceding year and make entries in a book of their 
own of the additions and changes. One enumerator whom I accom- 
panied, said that he had taken the census in one ward for 
" eleven years " and that the method of using the last year's book 
was the only proper method. On the day I went with him we got 
new the names of 160 children, and verified the names in 238 
families, in 3 hours and 12 minutes. The preceding day, another 



72 Registration of City School Children 

equally conscientious man, in a district less rural and demanding 
less walking got the names of 216 children from 354 families, 
but took 7 hours and 10 minutes. He did all his writing in the 
street. 

Unquestionably the former method has its advantages. The 
enumerator keeps a yearly check on all residing continuously in 
the district so that he is able to suppress the tendency on the 
part of parents to make the boy's age leap a year as it approaches 
the limit of compulsory school attendance; it impresses the 
parents to have the enumerator come with an air of certitude and 
say : " You have two children here, John, and Rose, any others ?" 
It saves time that otherwise would be spent in the hot street, as 
it is very much more rapid than the other method. On the other 
hand it practically presupposes a fairly stable population. The 
correct street lists have to be written out, in order, when the 
enumerator reaches home. There he makes the insertions and 
changes that his supplementary book shows. Thus the enumer- 
ator that used this method often worked until 6 p. m., and 
later, writing up the 200 or more names with the accompanying 
description. 

When the users of the other method had finished a street, it 
was finished, and the clerical work of it was over. In the one 
case the writing was done in ease at home ; and in the other case, 
awkwardly in the street. 

Most enumerators wrote the complete list in the street, feeling 
a desire to be through for the day when the last door-bell had 
been rung or the last door pounded. 

Instructions 
The Bureau issues " Instructions " to the enumerators. They 
are general in tone and to the individual wit of each is left the 
particular devices that facilitate the work. 

BOARD OF PUBLIC EDUCATIOxN 

Bureau of Compulsory Education 

699 City Hall 
INSTRUCTIONS— CENSUS, 1909 
In taking the Census as required by the Compulsory Attendance 
Law, take the name, etc., of every child who is or will be six years of age 
on or before October i, 1909. 



Philadelphia 73 

The names of children who will be sixteen years of age on or before 
September i, 1909, DO NOT take. 

The names of children in orphan asylums, educational homes and 
similar institutions DO NOT TAKE UNLESS they attend school (public, 
private, or parochial) outside of such institution and within the limits 
of the city. 

Take the names of all children between six and sixteen years of age 
living in hotels and apartment houses. 

Take the name of the father only but if not living the name of the 
mother or person in parental relation. Take the address if it differs 
from that of the child. 

Take the name and address of the employer of every child, and desig- 
nate the kind of employment under the following headings: Office, 
Factory, Store, Domestic Service and Miscellaneous. 

Note carefully the cause of non-attendance of every child. 

Classify children between fourteen and sixteen years of age who are 
neither employed nor enrolled in school at the time of your call at their 
homes, and children between thirteen and fourteen years of age not 
enrolled, as non-attendants. Girls under fourteen years of age who have 
been performing domestic service classify also as non-attendants. 

Take the street work for each Ward in separate street books. 

Make a report each week of the street work done and send it to reach 
the office in the first mail Monday. The work for more than one Ward 
must not be entered on the same report. 

Devote at least eight hours a day to street work, except Saturdays, 
on which day make out the report for the week. Note any loss of time 
and the cause on the report. 

Be as careful as possible to obtain and note the correct information 
relating to each child. Keep a list of all houses in which you are unable 
to obtain the required information, and send the list with the last report 
of the street work. 
M. G. Brumbaugh, William Thornton, 

Superintendent of Schools. Chief of Bureau. 

Note. In addition to making a list of all houses at which you are 
unable to obtain the required information, you will also make a separate 
list of all houses you find vacant. — W. T. 

Weekly Reports and Co-operation of Parochial Schools 
Each week the enumerator makes a record of his accompHsh- 
ment^ giving the area covered and the result of grouping the 
children by ages. It will be seen from this and from the Instruc- 
tions that no account is made of children in institutions such as 
orphan asylums. The census, therefore, is not a record of all 
the children of school age in the city ; it is still primarily a record 
for securing appropriations. 

^ Cf. Appendix 23. 



74 Registration of City School Children 

The blank seems to assume that no child under 14 is employed. 

The enrollment of parochial schools is particularly noted, and 
the statistics are found in the Chief's report for 1905. But I am 
credibly informed that few attendance officers make it their busi- 
ness to see that those reported as attending the parochial schools 
actually do so. This is a most important consideration for those 
looking toward the adequate enforcement of the Compulsory 
Attendance law. The complete harmony of the authorities in 
regard to these schools and private schools is essential for the 
fulfillment of the law. It is still too easy for a parent to transfer 
a pupil to a parochial school and then to send him to that work 
at which a negligent factory inspector may allow him to stay 
long without detection, or for which an " easy " judge may allow 
the parent to escape unpunished. 

The Catholic authorities of Philadelphia have sought to secure 
the activities of their own officers in regard to the law and have 
issued the following circular: 

Superintendent of Parish Schools, Broad and Vine Sts., Phila., Pa. 
To the Principal : His Grace, the Most Reverend Archbishop requests 
that you co-operate with the officials of the Bureau of Compulsory 
Education in regard to the suggestions that may be brought to your 
attention for the carrying out of the law of compulsory attendance. 
He likewise requests that those children that are in school, and over 
whom the Society to Protect Children from Cruelty has a legal care, be 
allowed to leave school at such times as the physician of the Society may 
desire their attendance at his office for medical examination. It should 
be understood that the Solicitor of the Society has expressed the opinion 
that it has a legal right to remove the children, if the parents refuse to 
have them examined by the physician. 

Sincerely, 

Philip R. McDevitt, 

Superintendent. 

But I have ground for believing that the attendance officers are 
not very punctilious about the parochial cases. When the force 
of attendance officers includes one that can report a pupil as 
" not found " or " removed " when he is spending half his day 
lolling over the balustrade of the fire-escape in the rear of the 
school, making faces at his teacher (an actual case), the reason 
can be perceived. 

But so far as the transfer of a pupil from one public school 
to another is concerned, the matter is kept well under the con- 
trol of the authorities. 



Philadelphia 7 5 

Authenticity of the Information 
One object of the census is to get control of the child that has 
never appeared on the school record, though of school age. Hence 
in addition to his weekly report, the enumerator used to make 
up a school list of all those shown, by the census returns, to be- 
long to one school. Of the value of these Hsts there was ques- 
tion, though theoretically they ought to be just the right thing. 
(Cf. ante, the letter of a Philadelphia principal.) Everybody 
on it ought to have been going to school or to have been directed 
to some school, and the list ought to be the principal's first re- 
source in controlling truancy at the beginning of the year. But 
while the street sheet calls for the age and date of birth, the 
blank called only for the age. Experience demonstrates that 
parents frequently falsify the age through craft, ignorance, or 
even good nature and a love for " round numbers " or " even 
numbers."' The writer noticed that many times the mother would 
give the age as of the birthday next approaching when that was 
many months away and not the " nearest birthday." Then, too, 
fathers of children are in most cases totally untrustworthy in 
regard to the age of their children. "About 15 " from a father 
means anything, in my experience, from 13 to 16. Russian Jews 
are frequently at sea in regard to the dates of birth of their chil- 
dren. " Before Peso,"*^ or "After Peso " was accepted in scores 
of cases for a date when an accurate date seemed, from the smile 
of bewilderment that accompanied the answer, to be utterly out 
of the question. 

The making of the weekly reports can be much facilitated if 
the page contains lines that number some multiple of ten, and if 
during the tabulation, on the street, marginal annotations are 
made as the enumerator proceeds. One enumerator was able to 
give me his day's age grouping in 15 minutes after the last name 
had been secured. Another showed me a book from which he 
had been laboriously selecting ages for an hour. This age group- 
ing seems to be based on the conception that all are going to 
school that ought to be going. In the aggregate the percentages 
called for, of 6-8, 8-14, 14-16, will probably remain the same 
year after year, and the painful extraction of these percentages 
each year is a waste of time. It would seem as if the weekly 
report might be made more illuminating. 
^Pesakh, Passover, Easter. 



7 6 Registration of City School Children 

A special report on " mental defectives " is now made. Parents 
are apt to disregard these unfortunates in the enumeration and 
not to mention them at all. To the parents the story is so old 
and the tragedy so hopeless that the educational possibilities of 
the defective have, in their minds, been reduced to zero. Such 
a child is for school purposes, they think, a nonentity. In the 
experience of the writer nothing but repeated questioning was 
ever able to elicit the real state of affairs. 

Taking the Census — Field Work 
In order to secure personal experience in the matter of taking 
the census, the writer obtained from the Bureau of Compulsory 
Education permission to accompany several of the enumerators 
on their official rounds. The Bureau furnished the names of 
those that it would suggest for the trial, and it is therefore fair 
to assume that the men chosen were those that the Bureau be- 
lieved were the best expositors of the system. Owing to the 
fact that the writer was unavoidably delayed in getting to Phila- 
delphia, some of the districts had been covered before his arrival, 
but the enumerators to which he was assigned gave him an op- 
portunity of seeing conditions in widely different parts of the 
city so that his conclusions may be taken as representative. 

It will be seen from the figures that the number of people or 
children to a house shows conclusively the typical fact of the 
method of housing in Philadelphia. The commonest type of 
dwelling house in Philadelphia is the one-family house. Thou- 
sands of these houses are built in long rows and many of them 
have but four rooms, two downstairs and two upstairs. This is 
the customary style in the newer parts of the town; in the older 
and more congested parts, it is true, there are some houses with 
a number of families in them. But they are the exception, and 
the kind of tenement that prevails in New York City, with its 
scores of families, is a distinct rarity. Some of the newer apart- 
ment houses in Philadelphia contain many families, but that kind 
of house is not popular with the citizens who cling with pride to 
their small but absolute domain. 

Such features as these influence the taking of the census very 
much. There is much more neighborliness among the people. It 
seems to be the fact that one is apt to know more about his "' next 
door neighbor " than about his upper or lower neighbor. And 



Philadelphia 7 7 

the next-door-neighbor information as tested by the enumerators 
has been found generally accurate. " Back calls " are rarely made 
when there is reason for believing the statement that the neighbor 
has " no children of any kind," is true. The tiring process of 
climbing stairs is almost eliminated. Even the small stoop steps 
are often avoided by hopping over the low fence that separates 
two dwellings. 

In securing the following figures, the writer did not record 
in his own book many of the things that the official record had to 
take notice of. The object of accompanying the enumerator was 
to get a first-hand idea of the efficiency of the census and its 
method, and to try to estimate its cost. That is, the writer en- 
deavored to determine the territory that an enumerator could 
adequately cover in a day, and the number of names that he 
could secure. The " Back Calls " are indicated as such, but there 
was a good deal of latitude in determining when a back call was 
necessary. A report of " no children " by a neighbor, was prac- 
tically never indicative of a back call when there was no other 
response. The item of parochial school attendance was kept 
separate by the writer, as it seemed to have a very important 
bearing on the efficiency of the Compulsory Education Law. The 
temperature and humidity records are given wherever possible 
as having some effect upon the daily amounts. The distance 
travelled in the different trials was very difficult to gauge. Some 
attempt to measure it was made with a pedometer, but readers 
must remember in considering the readings of a pedometer, even 
if it is regulated to the stride of the wearer, that it records steps 
and not distance although the result may be given on the dial in 
miles. The result is really " miles " only when the steps are 
regular and uniform in length. Thus going up low steps would 
count just as much as going up high ones although the effort 
in the latter case would be greater. 

Case I. Enumerator C. Ward 33. July 14. Temperature 
76-90. Humidity y6. Sunny after 9 a. m. Hours 8 :2o to 3 :30. 
No time taken for luncheon or refreshment. A mill district, the 
houses being occupied largely by operatives. Practically all 2- 
story, i-family houses. People white, speaking English readily. 
Ten items for every name taken. Houses obviously new not re- 
corded in any way. There were very many of these. Houses that 



7 8 Registration of City School Children 

were vacant but that seemed to have been occupied appear under 
■' Cases." Type of question : " Taking an enumeration of chil- 
dren, lady. How many children in 310^^ home?" 











R] 


esults 




Cases — 














Dwellings & 














Families 


Ch 


ildren 


B 


ACK 


Calls 




37 




20 






4 


46 


37 




16 









37 


40 




26 






2 


62 


31 




17 






I 


45 


112 




S3 






7 


120 


19 




24 






I 


30 


9 




10 






a 


12 


18 




14 






I 


18 


9 




8 






I 


18 


18 




6 









14 


24 




22 






4 


28 



Time in Minutes 



354 216 21 430=7 hours and 10 minutes 

As we went home in the street car, C was able to give me very 
speedily, owing to his system of making marginal marks as he 
wrote the names, a summary of his results. This he gave for the 
fiist 200 names and I give it below, but we did not entirely agree 
upon all points, notably upon the back calls. I recorded 21 where 
he gave only 17. 

Males Females 

6- 8 18 23 

14-16 17 1 4 (working legally) 14 8 (working legally)=2 2 

8-14 76 52 



Foreign born parents, 62 out of 224 fathers. 

This enumerator keeps a separate list of vacant old houses, 
but not vacant new (i. e., not yet occupied) houses. He estimates 
the number of names of those reported to him annually as " never 
in school " at 60. 



Philadelphia 79 

Report for Enumerator C 

as noted by the writer in the enumeration for 1908 

Attending schools other than elementary public schools, Parochial. . . 40 

Special i 

Reports of "no children " made by neighbor and accepted 46 

Number of children reported by neighbor and accepted 4 

Number so reported but not regarded as involving back calls 9 

Number of cases involving back calls because of no response 21 

Number between 8-14 not attending, illegally 7 

Number of this 7 " just arrived in city " 6 

Number of this 7 reported as physically disqualified (eyesight — 

ordered to report to the school doctor for his report) i 

Number 14-16 not attending and not working , 4 

Number reported as working legally, no certificate shown 22 

Number working illegally i 

Number of vacant houses, some never occupied 44 

Number insane, not at home i 

Number idiotic, not congenitally i 

Number ignorant of birthday i 

Number of children giving information accepted i 

Case 2. Enumerator R. Ward 23. July 16. Temperature 
70-78. Humidity 46. Hours 8:10 to 12:55. No time taken 
for luncheon or refreshment. Semi-rural district, the occupants 
of the houses being fairly stable in their abode. Mostly one- 
family houses, often detached with an alley as the usual method 
of approach instead of the front stoop or piazza. In some sec- 
tions, inhabitants white, and their responses quick. In others, 
inhabitants colored or low white, and responses difficult to elicit. 
Few new houses. Type of question: " You have i, 2, 3 children 
here, have you not ? Any others ? " 

Results 
Cases — 
Dwellings & 

Families Children Back Calls Time in Minutes 

41 22 o iS 

26 iS o 24 

26 14 o 23 

98 78 o 75 

16 15 o 20 

31 13 o 32 

238 160 o 192=3 hours and 12 minutes 



8o Registration of City School Children 

R. stated that he desired to quit early because he would have 
to spend the rest of the afternoon in writing out his book in proper 
form, since his method in the street was not to take all the names 
but to take only those that were new, and to keep note of the 
absence of change, save in age, of all children that had not altered 
their address. This compelled him to do the clerical work at 
home, and to sandwich into their proper street places the addi- 
tions and changes. This was his eleventh year, he said, in this 
district and he thought he could do it more quickly and accurately 
by checking the statements of the present year against the state- 
ments of the previous year. Thus he controlled the tendency to 
cheat in regard to the age of boys approaching 14. 

Report for Enumerator R 

as noted by the writer in the enumeration for 1908 

Attending schools other than elementary public schools, Parochial. . 12 

Reports of "no children " made by neighbor and accepted 18 

(Part of this item is included in the 86 given below.) 

Number of children reported by neighbor and accepted 13 

Number so reported and involving back calls o 

(Verified by the report for the preceding year.) 

Number of cases of " no response " but not involving back calls .... 21 

(No back call was recorded as the record was verified by neighbor.) 

Number of cases in which neighbor's word was accepted 86 

(R. in getting data from one family in regard to itself would ask 

concerning the neighbor, thus doing 2 families in the one call. The 

large number given for neighbor's reports was justified by the 

previous year's record.) 

Number 8-14 not attending, illegally i 

Niunber of this i " just arrived in city " i 

Number physically disqualified o 

Number 14-16 not attending and not working 2 

Number reported as working legally, no certificate shown i 

Number working illegally o 

Number of vacant houses 7 

Number of families reporting for the first time in this district 61 

Number of children on the book for the first time 52 

Number of negroes 7 

Number of houses, dangerous and unverified i 

(Good reason for concluding that no children made their home 

there.) 



Philadelphia 8 1 

Case 3. Enumerator W. Ward 2. July 20. Temperature 
75-78. Humidity 58-63. Hours 9:30 to 2:55. No time taken 
for luncheon or refreshment. A number of houses of more than 
one family. Tenements and rear tenements. Inhabitants mainly 
Russian Jews with some Poles, Germans, and Irish. Pedometer 
3^ miles. The linear distance around the block included the 4 
sides of one and 2 out of the 4 of another, or 6 linear " blocks " 
in all. But there were alleys to walk through and many more 
stairs to climb than on previous days. Type of question : " Have 
you any children here between 6 and 16? " 

Results 
Cases — Back 

Dwellings Families Children Calls Minutes Distance 
79 139 161 6 195 2 J miles 

17 21 36 o 45 i 

32 35 39 I 45 I 

20 25 39 4 40 I 

148 220 275 II 325 3i 

W. has been taking the enumeration in this district for 4 years. 
He says he finds the people much more willing to give the infor- 
mation than formerly. He does not understand Yiddish, but has 
picked up a few words of it. He frequently used children as 
interpreters. The birthdays were very vague even to the mothers, 
often being " before or after New Year's, Christmas, Fourth of 
July, Easter, Passover." " Europe " was accepted as the birth- 
place of a parent when nothing more definite could be got. Most 
of those " born in Europe " went down as " Russian." Some- 
times " old country " was taken. W. works around the block con- 
tinuously, taking in the alleys as he goes. Some enumerators do 
both sides of the street as they go if the houses are far apart. If 
they are near together, they may go up one side and down the 
other. On this day he noticed in the afternoon an alley of the 
adjacent block that he had forgotten to take the day before when 
he had done that block. It is questionable whether, if he had left 
this alley out completely, the office would have known anything 
about it. The word of those at the bottom of the house to the 
effect that there were no children of any age in the house was 
generally accepted and no further investigation was miade. 



82 



Registration of City School Children 



Report for Enumerator W 



as noted by the writer in the enumeration for 1908 

Attending school other than elementary public schools, Parochial .... 75 

Lutheran 4 

Deaf and Dumb. i 

Reports of " no children " made by neighbor and accepted 26 

Number of children reported by neighbor and accepted 3 

Number so reported and involving back calls 2 

Number of cases involving back calls because of no response 5 

Number 8-14 not attending, illegally i 

Number 14-16 not attending and not working o 

Number reported as working legally, certificate asserted 10 

Number working illegally o 

Number of vacant dwellings 13 

Number idiotic i 

Number ignorant of birthday i 

Number ignorant of name i 

Number of children giving information accepted 13 

Number of cases of no inquiry, no reason given 6 

(Of these, one house bore a " to let " sign; one was a Chinese laundry; 
one, a factory closed; two were rag shops; and one, passed unac- 
countably. In all cases the enumerator doubtless had good grounds 
for assuming the absence of children.) 




Diagram to show the enumerator's progress about an intersected block. 



Philadelphia 83 

Case 4. Enumerator W. Ward 2. July 21. Temperature 
78. Humidity 62. Hours 9:38 to 3:40. No time taken for 
luncheon or refreshment. Houses mainly one family. Inhabi- 
tants as in case 3. Pedometer reading at start 5 miles, at close 
8% miles. The linear direction is indicated in the sketch of the 
block, the arrows showing the direction taken by the enumerator. 

Results 

Cases — Back 

Dwellings Families Children Calls Minutes Distance 

109 no 114 7 142 ij miles 

42 42 47 I 70 J " 

57 60 72 I 90 f " 

32 32 38 4 35 i " 

16 17 19 I 25 J " 

256 261 290 14 362 3J " 

There were fewer stairs to climb than on the previous day as 
there were more one-family houses. 

Report for Enumerator W 

as noted by the writer in the enumeration for 1908 

Attending schools other than elementary public schools, Parochial. . 63 

Lutheran. . 2 

Truant. ... i 

Business. . . i 

Report of " no children " made by neighbor and accepted 17 

Number of children reported by neighbor and accepted o 

Number of cases involving back calls because of no response 13 

Number 8-14 not attending o 

Number 14-16 not attending and not working i 

Number working legally with certificate not shown 16 

Number working illegally i 

Number vacant houses 13 

Number not knowing age 3 

Number of children giving information accepted 9 

Number of cases of no inquiry, no reason given 3 

(Of these, one was a junk shop; one, a Chinese laundry; and one, a 
cellar, was said by a girl on the first floor to have only men in it.) 

Cautions 
The writer, from his Philadelphia experience, gained a knowl- 
edge of some of the things a new census taker ought to be warned 
against, but rarely is. 



84 Registration of City School Children 

The questions must be asked in a reasonable way. The ma- 
jority of the people give the information readily. The enumerator 
may sometimes be taken for an insurance agent, where the insur- 
ance companies have covered the ground pretty thoroughly, and 
the person may at first be correspondingly reticent. For in- 
stance, one woman insisted on showing her book of the 

Company and saying that her premiums were paid. But 

convinced at last, she gave the name of her one child. One man 
said he had no children, " Just a little boy, going on eleven." 

One woman said she would be hanged if she would give the 
names of her children, that this was a free country, that her 
children were her own, and that she would cut their throats if 
she wanted to. 

More than one parent was drunk. 

One Irish father, when asked the month of his son's birth, re- 
plied : " Oh, say any month." " February ? " hazarded the enu- 
merator. " Yes, go ahead, say February," said the father. 

One woman, seeing the enumerator coming, ran in, and sent 
her daughter to the bell. The latter said her mother was out, 
but when she heard the type of question she said that her mother 
had been washing and maybe had come back. The mother then 
appeared. 

In another place the conversation ran, "Any children here?" 
" What ? " " Any children here ? " " No, only two little boys." 
" How old? " " One going on 14, one 12." 

One woman persistently denied that she had any children until 
she became convinced of the innocence of the inquiry, when she 
confessed to five. 

One door bore this sign : " Please don't knock. Come Sat- 
urday. Sure will settle up insurance." 

Some parents denied the question in good faith, not taking in,, 
on the instant, exactly what was intended. Thus the question, 
" Have you any children between 6 and 16? " was very confusing 
to many. " No," said one man, " the youngest one is 9." 

The successful enumerator must be patient, tactful, but insistent. 
He has to be quick to put odd facts together as gleaned from the 
neighbors, and if he has a sense of humor and good-fellowship he 
will get along better. He must be resourceful but polite. 



Philadelphia 8$ 

Time of Year for Enumeration 

The census is taken in June primarily because of the way in 
which the attendance officers are paid, but May was tried and 
given up because so many Italians of the 4th ward went across the 
river into New Jersey to pick berries during that month and June. 
Any one that has had experience with the Italian population knows 
how mobile it is. Often possessed of few household goods it can 
pick up its few belongings in a morning and depart for another 
camping ground. The neighbors generally profess ignorance of 
whereabouts or destination. In the 7th ward many residents leave 
for the slimmer vacation before July. 

The enumerators seem to think that there is less tendency to lie 
about the age of a child when the census is taken in the summer, 
apparently because parents are off their guard. On the other 
hand, those becoming fourteen during the summer often go lo 
work without a certificate. 

The frequent removals in May, as well as the reasons given 
above, seemed to make that month a poor one for the taking of 

the census. 

Efficiency of the System 

The Philadelphia system works unsatisfactorily. Notwithstand- 
ing the number of years that the city has been engaged in the 
effort to tabulate its pupils and those that ought to be pupils, the 
results have been inaccurate and untrustworthy. There has been 
no attempt made to keep the tabulation up to date. What this 
might mean can be seen from the figures of one Philadelphia prin- 
cipal in a district where the mobility of population was normal for 
that district: 

Number belonging, " mode " for the year i iOS7 

Admissions 641 

Number transferred for removal and certified to work 540 

Number graduated 81 

The Bureau, which keeps a record of transfers, gives the ap- 
proximate number per day as 990 or 40,cxx) a year. 

The Superintendent of Schools in 1908 became dissatisfied with 
the method of handling the census and with its efficiency, and 
appointed a committee of principals and district superintendents to 
make a report embodying their recommendations in regard to the 
census, and these men submitted such a report after earnest con- 
sultation and investigation. A digest of it follows : 



86 Registration of City School Children 

Report of the Principals and District Superintendents Concerning 
the Philadelphia School Census 

1. The census is inaccurate, especially the age record. 

2. The census is inaccurate and incomplete in regard to names, 

3. The census should be taken by one empowered to administer 
an oath and thus enable prosecutions for perjury.'^ 

4. An interpreter ought to accompany the enumerator in foreign 
sections. 

5. The law must be enforced in parochial and other schools. 

6. The area to be covered by each attendance officer should be 
within the jurisdiction of a specific superintendent. 

7. Local conditions in addition to population and area to be cov- 
ered, should determine the number of attendance officers. 

8. Inefficient officers should be removable. 

9. No discretion in regard to serving notice or bringing prose- 
cutions should lie with the attendance officer. 

10. Schools should be so looked after that all cases of absence 
are promptly reported. 

11. A special magistrate, appointed "at large," should be as- 
signed for attendance cases. 

12. Prosecutions should be made by a special attorney of the 
Board. 

13. Room for all children subject for school duty should be 
provided. 

14. Special schools located geographically according to the 
needs of the locality should be provided. 

15. A work-certificate grounded on false returns should be re- 
vocable or nugatory and the burden of proving age should rest on 
the parents or guardians. 

' Cf. the law for school census in Nevada, Digest of State Census 
Laws, ante. 



CHAPTER VI 
BOSTON AND CHICAGO 

Boston 
Estimated population 1906, 602,278. Area in acres, 24,613. 
The revised laws of Massachusetts, Ch. 43, read as follows : 

" The school committee of each city and town shall annually 
ascertain and record the names, ages, and such other information 
as may be required by the Board of Education, of all children 
between 5 and 15 years of age, and of all minors under 14 years 
of age that can not read at sight and write legibly sentences in 
the English language, residing in its city or town, on the first day 
of September, and such record shall be completed on or before 
the 15th day of November." 

In Boston the school census has been in charge of the same man 
for a number of years. He does the work by contract for the 
committee. The Superintendent of Schools of Boston writes that 
this census is " very carefully taken and supplemented when neces- 
sary by inquiries by the truant officers." 

The Secretary of the Statistics Department of the city of Boston 
writes, " It is fairly well taken so far as determining the age and 
address of the children enumerated is concerned. * * * i am 
informed by the Secretary of the State Board of Education that 
compulsory education is fairly well controlled by the school census 
in many of the municipalities of the State. Its results undoubt- 
edly afiford a means of control if the school committee are minded 
to put it to such use. In Boston the school census furnishes in- 
formation as regards the ages of children that is availed of in 
granting or withholding employment certificates, but inasmuch as, 
under the law, the completion of the census is not required before 
the 15th of November, and the Boston school census is seldom 
completed until some time in October, the data with respect to 
age are not absolutely satisfactory." 

The Chief Clerk in the office of the Superintendent writes that 
the contractor that takes the census is paid a lump sum and that 
the school authorities do not know whether the enumerators are 
paid by the week or per capita enumerated. He continues : " I 

87 



88 Registration of City School Children 

think the method pursued by this city in the taking of the census is 
generally satisfactory, but it is not a means of controlling com- 
pulsory education. * * * If the census could be taken sim- 
ultaneously in all parts of the city, it would be of much more ser- 
vice in following up the attendance of children in the schools ; 
but as the work is necessarily spread over 2^/2 months a great deal 
of moving takes place and the names of many children are un- 
doubtedly skipped." 

From other sources the information is given that : " The school 
census in Boston is not carefully taken. The enumerators that 
are sent out get much of their information at second hand. I am 
told that the little shopkeeper on the ground floor of a tenement 
will be asked to give the number of children in each tenement of 
the building. It is a good part guesswork in so far as this method 
is followed." 

The Monthly Bulletin of the Statistics Department for October, 
November, December, ipo8. Vol. 10, Nos. 10, 11, and 12, gives 
the detail, so far as published, of the census for 1908. The ar- 
ticle on the Boston School Census 1908, page 159, opens as fol- 
lows : 

" The total number of persons from 5 to 15 years of age (i. e., 
not including those of 15) constitutes the 'school population' 
— which does not include those that attend evening schools — since 
that number as determined by the school census is used by the 
State authorities as the basis of apportioning the Massachusetts 
school fund." 

Then follow tables to show that the school population has in- 
creased from year to year, but nothing to show that it has in- 
creased proportionately to the size of the population. Of course, 
this is admittedly hard to get, and the accuracy of a census taken 
by other enumerators might be called in question by those that 
took the school census. But it would seem as if the report might 
be made more enlightening considering the number of years the 
census has been taken in Boston. The Bureau of Statistics and 
Labor takes a census every ten years, in years ending in 5, and 
the United States takes a census every ten years in years ending 
in o. The United States publishes estimates of the population for 
the intercensal period, and these figures might show, in conjunc- 
tion with the figures for the school census, something of value. 
They will not do so, however, if given over too small an area. 



Boston and Chicago 



89 



There are given below, the U. S. intercensal estimates for 1904, 
1905, and 1906 and the school census returns for the same years: 

1904 1905 1906 

1. School population 100,367 101,865 104,018 

2. Population (U. S. Est.) 588,482 595. 380 602,278 

Per cent, of I on 2 16.9 171 17.2 

Even these figures do not show that more children are attend- 
ing school. Granting that the intercensal figures are correct 
(which of course they are not), the percentages show merely 
larger numbers of children in the city between the ages of 5 to 15. 

Judging from the Chicago experience, q.v., to be sure, the 
intercensal figures may be far even from an approximation, but 
unless some such treatment of the figures is given they can mean 
but very little. If the census is worth the taking it ought to be 
put to a more extended use than merely the base of the State 
appropriation. 

The following is one treatment, for instance, in which the 
figures used are all determined by the same agency : 



Number of 




Per cent of 


pupils 




pupils registered, 


in public 


Number of 


on number of 


day schools 


persons 


persons 


5 to 15 years 


5 to 15 years 


5 to 15 years 


75-263 


98,487 


76.42 


77.125 


100,367 


76.84 


79,708 


loi ,865 


78.25 


81,508 


104,018 


78.85 


82,681 


104,150 


79.48 



1903 

1904 

1905 

1906 

1907 

These figures really do show that the number of children be- 
tween the ages of 5 and 15 attending school is increasing com- 
pared to the whole number of children 5 to 15 in the city. Only 
such proportionate statistics are of real value. 

Whether the increase of the per cents is due to the increased 
efiiciency of the law of compulsory education ; or to the better 
organization of the force of truant ofificers, of whom in 1907 there 
were 23 ; or to other reasons, is quite another matter, and not 
within the province of the present discussion. 

But the figures very clearly demonstrate the necessity of re- 
ducing the returns to per cents if the results are to mean anything 
to the outsider or even to the tax-payer of the city of Boston 
itself. 



90 Registration of City School Children 

Chicago 
Estimated population 1906, 2,049,185. Area in acres, 114, 
932.3 acres. 

The situation in Chicago is somewhat unusual. The State law 
in regard to the school census is rather indefinite. There is a 
provision indicating that the Township Board is to take the census 
throughout Illinois, or failing that, the County Superintendent is 
to take it. But these regulations are obviously for the purpose of 
making appropriation of State moneys. So far as any specific 
requirement concerning the taking of a census for the purpose of 
controlling attendance goes, there is none. The Annual Report 
of the Superintendent of Compulsory Education for the City of 
Chicago for 1906 speaks of a house to house canvass in May, 
1906, and on page 22 gives a recapitulation of the data gathered 
by that enumeration with an age distribution and an account of 
the results of the investigations of truant officers into cases found 
by the enumerators as of school age and not attending school. 

But it is in regard to the census of 1908 that we have the most 
explicit information. Chicago in that year endeavored to find 
how many people were living within the city limits on the 4th of 
May, and seized the opportunity to determine at the same time 
the number of her school children as reported to the enumerators 
by the parents. 

Chicago, according to the United States census of 1900, had an 
area of 114,932.3 acres and an estimated population in 1906, ac- 
cording to the U. S. Report, of 2,049,185. It is divided into 35 
wards. 

There were appointed a Superintendent of the School Census, 
one Assistant Superintendent, a Supervisor for each ward, and 
enumerators for one or more of the election precincts of the ward. 
There were, of course, various clerks. The truant officers were 
not the enumerators. As the school census seems to have been 
incidental to a general census, it is impossible to get a real idea 
of the cost of the school census. The Superintendent got $10.00 
a day ; the Assistant, $7.50 a day ; clerks and ward supervisors, 
$3.00 a day ; and enumerators, $2.50 a day. 

The enumerators were not civil service appointees nor candi- 
dates from an eligible list. They were certified to the Superin- 
tendent by the ward committeemen. Each enumerator signed a 



Boston and Chicago 91 

contract in which he agreed not to demand any salary until his 
work was checked and accepted by the Superintendent, and 
.agreed, furthermore, to do all the work in person and to visit 
every apartment with " all the necessary call-backs." The enu- 
merators received maps of the precincts in which they had to work, 
the maps being issued by the Board of Election Commissioners. 
Scale 9 inches to a mile. 

The enumerators also received a copy of General Instruc- 
tions giving various suggestions as to mode of procedure, but 
not giving some of those invaluable suggestions as to the mode 
of asking the questions, etc., that go so far toward facilitating the 
work and enabling the enumerator to get accurate information 
rapidly and easily. The instructions concerned themselves largely 
with determining the residence of adults (servants, lodgers, tran- 
sient guests, etc.). Two of the most important regulations were: 
" Begin the canvass at the southeast corner of the block and pro- 
ceed entirely around and through the block before leaving 
it for another. Repeat this process as many times as there are 
separate blocks in the precinct " ; and " The enumerators 
must devote at least ten (10) hours each day (except Saturday) 
to the diligent canvassing of their districts." 

The enumerators reported to the Ward Supervisor for orders 
or suggestions concerning their field work, but the map with all 
the enumerating sheets was sent back, when his work was com- 
pleted, to the general office, where it was checked. 

The field sheet was of inconvenient size, being 12x19 inches, 
but it was arranged to allow 40 names to the page in groups of 
5 and this facilitated counting. The top of the page called for 
the Ward Number, Precinct No., Block No., Sheet No., Date, 
Enumerator, and it gave a list of Causes of Illiteracy that were to 
be reported below by number: Indigence, 111 Health, Mental 
Weakness, Negligence of Parents, Mutes, Idiotic and Insane, 
Other Causes. The column headings reading from left to right 
across the page were as follows: Describe Building (House, flat, 
factory, store). House or Flat No., Surname, Given Name, Na- 
tivity (Where Born, Father where born. Mother where born), 
Deaf, Blind, 21 and over (M. F.), Under 21 and 16 and Over 
(Public School M. F., Private School M. F., Not in School for 
30 days M. F.), Under 16 and 14 and Over (Public School, etc., 



92 



Registration of City School Children 




Boston and Chicago 93 

as before, .Working, Store or Office M. F., Factory M. F., Mis- 
cellaneous M. F.), Under 14, and 7 and Over (Public School 
M. F. as before), Under 7, and 6 and Over (Public School M. F. 
as before). Under 6, and 4 and Over (Public School M. F. as 
before), Under 4 M. F., Illiterate Minors under 21, and 12 and 
Over (Neither read nor write any language M. F,), Cause by 
Number. 

There was another sheet of the same size for Ward and Pre- 
cinct, entitled Recapitulation Nativity Statistics by Precincts, 
giving for 34 countries the number of American Born (Father, or 
Both Parents Foreign) and Foreign Born. There was a separate 
column for Americans, Negroes, and other Nationalities not enu- 
merated. 

This last sheet was white ; the field sheet was yellow. 

The report of the Superintendent of the School Census was 
issued in the fall of 1908. It consisted of figures only, without 
explanation or deduction or comparison with the results of pre- 
vious years. The items were what might have been inferred from 
the field sheet. The total population was shown to be 1,924,060, 
wliich is interesting in comparison with the government estimate 
for 2 years earlier, namely 2,049,185. Of the children under 14 
and over 7 (the compulsory age for Illinois) there were 5,183 that 
had not been in school for 30 days, but as the majority of these 
were stated to be out for " illness, physical defects, or illness in 
the family, it was necessary to refer only 887 of these cases to the 
truant officers." There was a total of 176,806 children under 1.4 
and over 7. 

There were 602 under 21 and over 12 who could neither read 
nor write any language, and 269 of these were said to be so be- 
cause of ill-health ; 46 were illiterate because of poverty, and 59 
because of the neglect of parents. Of the others, 72 were men- 
tally weak, 31 were mute, and 24 were idiotic or insane. There 
is no record of the disposition of any of these cases, nor any 
statement in regard to the procedure against parents or the relief 
of the indigent. There were 276 blind and 437 deaf. There is 
no statement whether or not the report for the blind and deaf is 
for the whole city, or for those under 21 and 12 and over. 

It will be seen from this brief survey of the School Census for 
Chicago that the situation there is inchoate and different from 
that obtaining anywhere else. The school census was incidental 



94 Registration of City School Children 



BOARD OP EJDUCATION 

OITY OP OHIOAGO 
SCHOOI. OBNSOS DEPARTMENT 



(§rnrral iufitrurlintta to i&tum^ratnra 

The object of the Census is to obtain a complete list of the inhabitants of the City of 
Chicago on the FOURTH OF MAY, 1908. All changes after that date, whether in the nature 
of a gain or a loss, are to be disregarded. 

Enumerators must not delegate their authority to any other person or be accompanied 
by or assisted in their work by any unauthorized person. 

Entries in the Schedule must be made legibly and distinctly under the proper heading. 

Enter the SURNAME, then the GIVEN NAME IN FULL and the INITIAL of the 
MIDDLE NAME if any. 

Enter the members of each family in the following order, namely: HUSBAND first, 
WIFE second, CHILDREN in the order of their ages, and all other persons LIVING with 
the family, whether relatives, boarders, lodgers, or servants. 

A person who BOARDS in one place and LODGES in another should be returned 
from the place where he or she LODGES. 

A DOMESTIC SERVANT, unless he or she sleeps elsewhere, is to be returned as a 
member of the family in which he or she WORKS. 

All OCCUPANTS and EMPLOYEES of hotels, if they regularly SLEEP fn the hotels 
should be returned as-RESIDENTS of the hotels. The same is true of OFFICIALS and 
INMATES of Institutions who LIVE in the Institution Buildings. 

TRANSIENT GUESTS of hotels MUST NOT BE ENUMERATED. 

Persons TEMPORARILY residing outside of the City should be enumerated. 

It is difificult in some instances to determine the "PLACE OF ABODE." However, 
that must be left to the judgment of the enumerators and they should take the utmost precau- 
tioii to prevent repetition. 

Begin to canvass at the southeast corner of block and proceed entirely AROUND and 
THROUGH the block before leaving it idr another. Repeat this process as many times as 
there are SEPARATE blocks in the precinct. 

Take care |o distinguish BLOCK. PRECINCT and WARD clearly. 

Begin the entry of each block at head of page and enter no more names on that page 
wjien block is finished. 

The enumeration is intended to include every MAN. WOMAN and CHILD, who had 
his or her residence in CHICAGO on MAY 4, 1908. 

Entry is to be made of every person wl)o was a resident of the district upon that date. 
If a person has died between May 4, 190S, and the day of your visit, the name should be 
entered precisely as if the person were living. 

Enumerators are not permitted to shoiy their schedules, when filled, or to retain copies 
of the same or to furnish information regarding the population of their districts or any portion 
thereof to newspapers, local officials, or any other person not connected with the School Census 
Department. Any infringement of this rule will result in the loss of a part or all of their 
salary and IMMEDIATE DISCHARGE, 

If. after proper and courteous effort, the enumerators fail to secure the desired informa- 
tion, they should, as soon as convenient, report the fact to the Ward Supervisor. 

The enumerators must devote at least TEN (10) hours each day (except Sundays) ta 
the diligent canvassing of their districts. 

The Ward Supervisor has absolute charge of the enumerators during their field worlt 
and all reports should be made to him. 

4, IffiJH g^upfrintftiftpnt of Srljool (Urttsua 



Boston and Chicago 95 

to a larger census taken for other purposes really, and therefore 
not an adequate criterion of a really good school census. There 
seems to be little doubt, however, that the machinery having once 
been set in motion will continue to operate more and more effect- 
ively. Any such idea, however, of a continuous census, or a cur- 
rent census, does not seem to have entered the contemplation of 
the Chicago authorities. 



; CHAPTER VII 

PROVIDENCE AND DETROIT 

Providence 

Estimated population 1906, 203,243. Area in acres, 11,355. 

The law of Rhode Island, covering the enumeration of school 
children, was passed, as amended, April 24, 1900, although the 
taking of a school census was customary in the State before that 
date. Sec. 13 of Chap. 54, of the General Laws, reads, amended, 
as follows : 

(Cf. Ch. 739, Public Laws Pertaining to Education.) "The 
school committee of each town or city, or some person or persons 
whom they shall appoint for the purpose, shall annually in the 
month of January, take a census of all persons between the ages 
of 5 and 15 years inclusive, residing within the limits of their 
respective towns on the first day of said January ; and said school 
committee shall fix the compensation for the above service which 
shall be payable from the appropriation for public schools." 

In Providence this census is taken by Gilbert E. Whittemore, 
who is " Supervisor of School Census, Truant Officer, and Agent 
of the School Committee under the Factory Inspection Law." 

Mr. Whittemore has devoted years of conscientious labor for 
a meager remuneration to these three phases of the momentous 
question of efficient education. Writing in 1905 an Open Letter, 
he says: 

" In Rhode Island, perhaps because it is small, we can round 
up our children and account for all of them. But certainly, Provi- 
dence is not a small city, and what we can do here can be done in 
any city. I note that reformers are beginning to demand an 
annual census of children of school age. Every city and town 
of this State has taken such a census in January for over 30 years. 
In Providence this house-to-house census is preceded by a census 
in December in every year, taken in the schools, of all children in 
our public and private schools, and of all children of school age 
who are working, taken in the places of employment, and these 
two censuses are arranged alphabetically as a directory and com- 
pared. We do not guess what our children are doing, we know. 
This exact knowledge from two entirely different sources enables 
96 



Providence and Detroit 97 

us to locate nearly all of our children accurately by name, parent, 
street, and number, at least once a year, and with tracers we fol- 
low the course of all pupils once registered in a school. We can 
therefore correct violations of the law, by formal notices sent by 
mail to parents, in a large majority of cases, especially when it is 
generally understood that prosecution will speedily follow obsti- 
nacy. Under this system one or two clerks and the post-office can 
do much more efficient work than several officers blindly chasing 
boys through the streets, and at much less expense." 

In 1900 Providence ranked as the 20th in size among the cities 
of the United States, having a population of 175,597, with 15,511 
children from 5 to 9 years of age, and 13,819 from 10 to 14, 
according to the national census. Of the entire population over 
33 per cent was foreign born. 

The city is divided into 10 wards and these are the enumera- 
tion units, there being 10 house-to-house enumerators. 

As there is only one truant officer, the enumerators are not 
employed as attendance officers, but are employed during the rest 
of the year largely in clerical work or in enumerating for poll tax, 
militia, and birth statistics. 

The semi-annual census of birth is taken in January and a joint 
engagement is made by the truant officer and Registrar whereby 
the same enumerators make both records. 

The enumerators receive 15 cents for each birth, and i^ cents 
for each school child enumerated, the total being paid for by the 
school department. 

The last available figures for January, 1909, show a total of 
20,566 boys, 20,377 girls, a grand total of 40,943, and a cost for 
enumerating approximately as follows : 

Supervision $200 . 00 

Tabulation 150.00 

Enumeration 580 . 98 

Clerical work 472 . 65 

Supplies 20.33 

Postage 1500 

Printing 95.57 

Carriage hire 8.00 

Carfare 10 ,00 



551,552.53 

The State furnishes the slip upon which the enumeration is 

made. These slips. Appendix 24, are made in pads of 100 sheets, 



98 Registration of City School Children 

6 inches by 4, one slip for each child, and each pad has a cover 
giving the following directions : 

1. The census is to be taken from the homes, and not from 
schoolhouses or school registers. 

2. It should include the name of every child who has passed 
his fifth birthday, but who has not yet reached his sixteenth. 

3. The age is to be reckoned only in years at last birthday. 

4. In filling out the blank for attendance at school, put down, 
as near as can be ascertained, the number of weeks the child was 
a member of any school, public or private, in the year 1909. It 
makes no difference whether the attendance was in this State or 
town, or in some other. 

5. .Where a child has attended during the year more than one 
kind of school, enter the whole attendance under that class where 
he attended the longest period. 

6. Each family should be visited, except in those cases where 
the enumerator has certain knowledge that there are no children 
residing there. 

7. In arranging the names alphabetically, the surname or last 
name should be followed and not the given name. 

The enumerators work around one square and then take up 
another, reporting their progress every three days. Families mov- 
ing during the month are reported to the enumerator into whose 
district they have moved wherever it is possible to ascertain this, 
and care is taken to avoid duplicate enumeration. 

The clerical force is not permanent. The chief clerk is a trades- 
woman who gives her time to school work from November to 
February, and the other clerks, about 25 days of whose time is 
given up to tabulation, etc., are at other times variously employed. 
About half of them have been at their school task 3 years or 
more. 

In 1905, the State made a census showing a population of 
198,635. The school census on January 1907, was 39,771 which 
was short by a number estimated to be 100 because of lack of 
experience on the part of an enumerator. In 1909, the report 
showed 40,943. 

The State appropriates $1 for every school child attending 
the public schools. " In the last 25 years," states Mr. Whitte- 
more, in the letter quoted before, " our population has increased 
86.9 per cent; our school census, 96.3 per cent; and our school 
attendance, 130.6 per cent." 



Providence and Detroit 99 

' Newsboys and boot-blacks of school age are licensed by the 
police department on age statements attested by the school au- 
thorities who do not accept unsupported affidavits, and these 
names are listed and the attendance of the boys checked in the 
schools they belong to. 

It will be seen from the foregoing that Providence has been 
regarding the school census for a number of years, not merely 
as an index of state appropriation, but as a means towards effi- 
cient education. The very titles of the chief officer show how the 
authorities have come to make various lines of work co-operate. 
The Bureau of Vital Statistics and the Board of Police are work- 
ing more harmoniously with the school authorities than in any 
other city of the United States. The child labor difficulty is con- 
trolled by inspection under the school officer, and the newsboy 
law is enforced by police and the school representatives. (Special 
Summer Work Certificates are given, revocable in September, 
for those under age.) 

In the main, the plan works fairly well. It has, of course, 
the shortcomings of that of any municipal organization that 
habitually works with too few people and those of insecure 
tenure; wastefulness of annual recapitulation, a recounting of 
those counted, for the purpose of getting into school or of keep- 
ing in school a small proportion of children some of whom may 
be found to be in school or for one reason or another, not sub- 
ject to the law of compulsory education. 

Providence, owing to inadequate child labor laws and a large 
foreign population, does not stand high in literacy, but is better 
than some other Rhode Island cities, notably Woonsocket. By 
degrees, however, the laws will be better adjusted, and the census 
system will show greater efficiency. 

Detroit 

Estimated population 1906, 353.535- Area in acres, 22,976. 

In Michigan the census is instituted by Act 36, Laws 1905, 
but it has much support given to it by Act 200, Laws 1905, 
amended by Act 74, 1907, which specifically concerns compulsory 
education. 

Act 36 compels incorporated cities with a population of 3,000 
or more to make a school census every year within 20 days next 
previous to the first Monday of June. It is taken by wards, ap- 



loo Registration of City School Children 

parently by specially hired enumerators, headed by the Secretary 
of the Board of Education or other reputable and capable person. 

The enumerators are ordered to make a list of the names and 
ages of all children over 5 and under 20 years, with the names 
of parents or guardians. The list must be sworn to by the 
enumerator. 

In cities of 3,c>oo or over, the Secretary and the enumerators, 
immediately after the first Monday in June, " compare, correct, 
and compile the entire census." It is then re-attested and sent 
to the Superintendent of Schools. 

According to Rule 3 of the Board, the President of the Board 
of Education has the power to appoint suitable persons to take 
the school census at a compensation to be fixed by the Board. 
He passes on the bills rendered for doing the work. 

The report for the year 1907 shows that in that year the census 
recorded a school population, between the ages of 5 and 20, of 
97,981. The amount of money paid out for the enumeration was 
$4,000. 

Act 200, section 3, a and h, states that the teacher in small dis- 
tricts, or the superintendent of schools in village or city, shall 
be furnished with a " copy of the last school census," (meaning, 
thereby, the census of the district over which, teacher or super- 
intendent, has control) " and it thereupon becomes the duty of 
the recipient, to compare the census list with the enrollment in 
the schools and to report to the proper truant officer, the names 
of children not in regular attendance." Section 2, permits cities 
having a duly organized police force, to detail one or more mem- 
bers of such force, at the request of the Board of Education, to 
act as truant officer in such city. 

These clauses would seem to make it appear, that the school 
census is taken in Michigan for purposes other than the appro- 
priation of school funds, though the latter reason is still a pre- 
dominant one. The age Umits for the census, far beyond the 
compulsory age, show that statistics for the state appropriation 
are being aimed at. 

The same conclusions are to be derived from the following 
statements from the office of a superintendent of schools in 
Michigan : 

" The census is taken under the direction of the school Board 
and paid for by them. In this city (35,000) i:he census costs 



Providence and Detroit loi 

$250 including tabulation, the census takers being paid 3 cents 

^ " Tlie enumerators are appointed each year, one for each ward, 
although it happens that in most of the wards, the same people 
have acted for a number of years." 

" There is no way of keepmg the census up to date, but the 
annual counting is not the only check of the evasion of the com- 
pulsory education law. We have a card catalog of pupils at- 
tending school. By comparing the list with the census as taken, 
we secure a list of delinquents to look up." 

"We could, of course, keep a more accurate check, it the 
school census were in ^ card form and subject to regular correc- 
tion through the year." • n 4. t^^ 

" The returns are not copied so as to group m enrollment for 
given schools.' " (The Superintendent does not, therefore, make 
clear how the comparison, mentioned just before, is actually 

carried out.) . . 1 ^1 • ^u 

" My (the Superintendent's) opinion is that the primary ob- 
iect of the Michigan school census is for the determination of the 
distribution of school funds. Certainly it has not been worked 
out thoroughly on any other basis as yet." 

Detroit however, is on the way toward an adequate enforce- 
ment of 'the compulsory law of the State, inasmuch as the 
schools and police co-operate. " Reports of absent pupils, writes 
Mr George E. Parker. Superintendent of Ungraded Schools, 
Detroit, " are mailed to the ungraded school of the district in 
which the reporting school is located and thence taken by the 
officer for investigation. A copy is also sent to the Lieutenant 
of Police, who is chief officer in charge of the truant officers. 
Copies of transfers issued to pupils, who have removed to an- 
other school district, are sent to the ungraded school and the 
cases are investigated. At the end of each month a list of pupils 
that have left school during the month for any cause, is sent to 
the Supervisor of Ungraded Schools, and all doubtful cases in- 

vestigated. ^ ., -r^ i- *. t\^ 

Lieut Charles Breault, head of the Juvemle Delinquent De- 
partment, has under him eight truant officers. He throws some 
light on that clause of the bill requiring comparison of census 
lists and school lists: 

-The provision in regard to the comparing of the census list 
of children who ought to be in school, with a list of those actu- 
ally enrolled in the public schools, has never been earned out 
in the city of Detroit, for the reason that the census is taken by 
wards, and districts of wards, and not by school districts, which, 
in many cases, are located in parts of several different wards. 



CHAPTER VIII 
NEW YORK 

Estimated population, 1906, 4,113,043. Area in acres, 209,218.1. 

The history of the growth of the principle of the registration 
of school children in the city of New York is especially interest- 
ing. Though a number of efforts have been made to find an 
adequate solution to this very complex problem, more intricate 
in New York than in any other city of the world, up to the 
present time nothing very effective has been accomplished. 

From 1850 to 1895 there were various efforts made to secure 
more thorough attendance, but until the compulsory census law 
of 1895, Chap. 550, Laws 1895, was passed, nothing definite 
toward enumeration and location was established. 

In 1895 a census was accordingly taken by the police, and 2,640 
children of compulsory school age confessed to non-attendance. 
1 wo thousand of these were working illegally. 

In 1897, the census was inadequately taken and the results 
neglected, and thereafter until 1906 the compulsory census law 
was a dead letter. 

Meanwhile, charitable associations, thrown daily with under- 
age workers, were urging legislation, and finally, after argument 
before the Board of Estimate and Apportionment to meet the 
charges that a census would cost too much and would not be 
serviceable, the Board of Education in December approved the 
taking of a census provided that the funds at the service of the 
Board were not diverted for that aim. 

Accordingly, in 1906 preparations were made for having the 
census taken by the police in October. A card system was to 
be used and the city was to be divided into districts including a 
certain convenient number of police precincts, and the precinct 
commanders were ordered by the Police Commissioner in G. O. 
No. 81, Oct. 15, 1906, to make a complete and accurate census 
of all children between 4 and 18 years. Full returns from all 
private houses, institutions, boarding schools, etc., were to be 
made, the manager or superintendent of an institution to furnish 



New York 103 

a certificate that the enumeration of those under his charge had 
been properly completed. 

Hundreds of thousands of individual slips, of the type illus- 
trated, Appendix 27, were printed, a form based essentially on 
the recommendation of the Committee on the Physical Welfare 
of School Children (an independent body, not of the Board of 
Education) and the New York Child Labor Committee. (Ap- 
pendix 26,) 

Spring-back binders, capable of holding 100 or more of these 
slips, were provided; directions of the location of all schools in 
the city were furnished to each enumerator ; slips containing that 
part of Chap. 550, Laws 1895, relating to the withholding of 
information or falsifying age, and a page of instructions were 
given to each enumerator. (Appendix 25.) 

The name slips, which were not of bristol board but of a stout 
paper, were of different colors for the different boroughs of the 
city, Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Richmond. 

The enumerators were supplemented by a force of clerks hired 
for tabulating and codifying the results. 

On October 18, in Brooklyn and Queens, the police began their 
rounds ; and on October 25, in Manhattan, The Bronx, and Rich- 
mond. 

The enumeration was completed in all but 3 precincts after 
almost 4 months, and a report was issued on March 12, 1907, 
declaring the results of the " Third Biennial Census " since 1895. 

The delay was probably caused mainly by a feeling on the 
part of the police authorities that school census taking was no 
proper part of the function of the policeman, especially when 
the Commissioner believed the force too small to perform properly 
their regular patrol duty. 

The enumeration included all under 18 and over 4 although 
the state authorities required only those between 5 and 18. 

The figures of the report have some interest but in the main 
were figures only and not percentages, and as they were not any- 
where compared with total population (an unknown number, of 
course) their relative significance did not appear. 

But the most noteworthy numbers are the following. 



I04 Registration of City School Children 

Total 4-17 953. 485 

Foreign born 113 , 740 

(Russia 48,437 

Italy 26, 174 

Germany 4,737 

England 4,35° 

Poland 1 , 680 

Ireland i , 489 

Scotland 568 

Other nations) 26,305 

Kept at home illegally 6,411 

Working illegally 9 , 799 

Truant 411 

Physically unable to attend ' 3.050 

Crippled 217 

Deaf 848 

Dumb 600 

Blind 84 

Mentally defective 224 

Attending parochial schools 89 , 762 

Attending private schools 23, 619 

Attending private institutions 15 ,223 

Attending public institutions 8 , 639 

The Superintendent in charge stated in conclusion : " Much 
good has been done for the cause of education in the city of 
New York, by the taking of this census. Every officer was in- 
formed regarding the provisions of the compulsory education 
law, and in this way parents have learned much of the duty which 
the State compels them to perform in sending their children to 
school. The provisions of the Compulsory Education Law re- 
lating to attendance upon evening school by boys who have em- 
ployment certificates but who are not graduates of an elementary 
school, seem to be ' more honored in the breach j:han in the 
observance.' " 

As soon as these figures appeared, they were attacked. In 
fact, the Superintendent states in the Report that " the number 
reported as truants is comparatively small. This may be ac- 
counted for by the fact that many parents are unwilling to 
acknowledge to an officer that their children are truants." 

The Committee on the Physical Welfare of Children said they 
could account for 325 cripples as against the number reported. 

The same committee attacked the report on the ground that in 
places it was inconsistent with itself, showing: 



New York 105 

Number of children over 5 and under 18, attending public 
school, by census, 557,368. Reported in Kindergarten, Elemen- 
tary School (not Evening) and High School (not Evening) on 
register, 615,329. 

This would seem to show that since more children were going 
to the public schools than the police could find attending them, 
the idea that police enumeration would drive the children into 
school by enabling the authorities to secure the attendance of 
those of school age but not registered in school, was based on 
false hopes. The schools by their own call, seemed already to 
have secured the children. 

The fact that the number 953,485 was not shown as the total 
of any other figures in the report was disappointing. Where the 
total comes from or what it really is, is not clear. 

Then the number of foreign born is reported as 18 per cent 
of the number on register. This it undoubtedly is, but since the 
" foreign born " is a total, it should have been compared with 
the total children and not with the " total in school " as not all 
the foreign born were going to school. It is only 11. 9 per cent 
of the total number of children reported. 

The Report itself shows that out of the 411 cases of truancy 
reported and 207 investigated at the date of the report, only yy 
could be verified. The other 130, or 62.8 per cent being incor- 
rectly reported by the police. 

The Report indicates also that out of 9,799 cases reported as 
working illegally, 3,505 cases had been investigated. Of these: 
1,411 were legally employed as determined by attendance officers 

231 were attending school 

596 were over 16 and therefore working legally 
53 were physically unable to attend 



2,291 

Some cases, " not closed " and " not found," etc., bring the 
total to the 3,505 mentioned. But these 2,291 were not, accord- 
ing to the report of the attendance officers, working illegally. 
This makes the error of the police in this case, using the returns 
of the attendance officers as true, 65.3 per cent. 

The Report shows that the police returned 6,411 kept at home 
illegally. Of these 3,634 cases were investigated : 



io6 Registration of City School Children 

178 were legally employed at home as determined by attendance 

officers 
253 were legally employed elsewhere 
160 were physically unable to attend 
1,379 were regularly attending school 
137 were under or over age 

2,107 

Some cases " not closed " and " not found " bring the total to 
the 3,634 investigated. But the 2,107 were not at home illegally. 
This makes the error of the police, in this case, using the returns 
of the attendance officers as true, 57.9 per cent. 

The police errors range from 57.9 per cent to 65.3 per cent on 
the basis of the attendance officers figures. It is, of course, an 
assumption that the figures of the attendance officers are correct, 
but they certainly ought to be more nearly correct and probably 
are. 

In short, although the authorities, having taken the census, 
were disposed to stand up for it, the data were allowed to languish 
because their integrity was impeached. 

On December 8, 1907, an article appeared in a newspaper that 
makes a specialty of securing " school news," headed " Detec- 
tives After School Children. Four men will patrol the streets 
and capture all little folk who are out of school. One hundred 
and twenty boys caught already." 

The gravity of this account is almost pathetic. Coming only 
nine months after the census report and solemnly stating that four 
men were going to divide up Greater New York and return all 
delinquents to school, it seems to demonstrate the complete col- 
lapse of respect for the census as a means of getting the children 
into school. 

But already in April 1907, the Public Education Association, 
anticipating the census of 1908, wrote to the Director of the 
Department of the Charity Organization Society for the Im- 
provement of Social Conditions, that: 

" It seems to be generally conceded that the results of the last 
school census were almost nil. Unless some better plan for the 
enumerating and accounting for the children of New York is 
evolved before the fall of 1908, another $14,000 will be wasted 
in the taking of another useless census required by law." It 



New York . 107 

urged the consideration of a plan for the maintenance of a cen- 
tral city bureau of registration. 

The agitation for a substantial census law went vigorously for- 
ward, urged by persistent appeals of societies engaged in looking 
after the welfare of children and forming views according to 
ideas that seemed to work well abroad. 

A law was finally passed to secure a census for New York 
city in October 1909. A brief consideration of this bill is in- 
teresting. 

Chapter 249 

An Act in Relation to a School Census. 

Became a law May 11, 1908, with the approval of the Governor. 
Passed, three-fifths being present. 

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate 
and Assembly, do enact as follows : 

I. A permanent census board is hereby established in each city 
of the first class. Such board shall consist of the mayor, the 
superintendent of schools, the police commissioner or officer per- 
forming duties similar to those of a police commissioner. Such 
board shall have power to make such rules and regulations as may 
be necessary to carry out the provisions of this act. Such board 
shall have power to appoint a secretary and such clerks and other 
employees as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of 
this act and to fix the salaries of the same. Such board shall as- 
certain through the police force, the residences and employments 
of all persons between the ages of 4 and 18 years residing within 
such cities and shall report thereon from time to time to the 
school authorities of such cities. Under the regulations of such 
board during the month of October, 1909, it shall be the duty 
of the police commissioners in the cities of the first class to cause 
a census of the children of their respective cities to be taken. 
Thereafter such census shall be amended from day to day by 
the police, precinct by precinct, as changes of residence occur 
among the children of such cities within the ages prescribed in 
this act and as other persons come within the ages prescribed 
herein and as other persons within such ages shall become resi- 
dents of such cities, so that said board shall always have on file 
a complete census of the names and residences of the children 
between such ages and of the persons in parental relation thereto. 
If in the taking of the first census in any city of the first class 
during the month of October, 1909, additional policemen shall 
be required, such additional policemen shall be appointed by the 
police commissioner of said city from the civil service lists of 
persons eligible for appointment as such policemen, and said addi- 



10 8 Registration of City School Children 

tional policemen shall be allowed in addition to the number now 
allowed by law. It shall be the duty of persons in parental rela- 
tion to any child residing within the limits of said cities of the 
first class to report at the police station house of the precinct 
within which they severally reside, the following information : 

1. Two weeks before any child becomes of the compulsory 
school age, the name of such child, its residence, the name of the 
person or persons in parental relation thereto, and the name and 
location of the school to which such child is sent as a pupil. 

2. In case a child of the compulsory school age is for any 
cause removed from one school and sent to another school, or 
sent to work in accordance with the child labor law, all the facts 
in relation thereto. 

3. In case the residence of a child is removed from one police 
precinct to another police precinct, the new residence and the 
other facts required in the two preceding paragraphs. 

4. In case a child between the ages of 4 and 18 becomes a resi- 
dent of one of said cities of the first class for the first time, the 
residence and such other facts as the census board shall require. 
Such census shall include all persons between the ages of 4 and 
18 years, the day of the month and the year of the birth of each 
of such persons, their respective residences by street and num- 
ber, the names of their parents or guardians, such information 
relating to illiteracy and to the enforcement of the child labor 
and the compulsory education law as the school authorities of 
the state and of such cities shall require and also such further 
information as such authorities shall require. 

2. A permanent census board may be established in any city 
not of the first class, in accordance with the provisions of this 
act. If a census board shall not be established in such cities, 
then, during the month of October, 1909, and in the month of 
October every fourth year thereafter, the school authorities of 
every city, not a city of the first class, shall take a census of the 
children of their respective cities. Such census shall include the 
information required from the cities of the first class as pro- 
vided in section one of this act. 

3. The board of trustees of every school district shall annually 
on the 30th day of August cause a census of all children between 
the ages of 5 and 18 years to be taken in their respective school 
districts. Such census shall include the information required 
from cities as provided in this act. 

4. A parent, guardian, or other person having under his con- 
trol or charge a child between the ages of 4 and 18 years, who 
withholds or refuses to give information in his possession relat- 
ing to such child and required under this act, or any such parent, 
guardian or other person who gives false information in rela- 
tion thereto, shall be liable to, and punished by, a fine not ex- 
ceeding $20 or by imprisonment not exceeding 30 days. 



New York 109 

5. The money required for the purpose of carrying this act 
into effect shall be paid by the cities and school districts respec- 
tively, included in the provisions of this act, but in cities in which 
a permanent census board as provided under section one of this 
act is not established and maintained, and in school districts, 
such moneys shall be paid for the services rendered in the taking 
of the school census on the certificate of the State Commissioner 
of Education that such census has been satisfactorily taken. 

6. It shall be the duty of the State Commissioner of Educa- 
tion to enforce the provisions of this act. 

7. Chapter 550 of the Laws of 1895 is hereby repealed. 

8. This act shall take effect immediately. 

The act was to take effect immediately. Did it ? If by taking 
effect was meant that parents were at once to repair to the 
precinct commanders with the pedigree of their offspring, it did 
not take effect. The people most concerned showed no inten- 
tions of complying with its provisions. The palladium of the 
people's liberty, the Press, did not agitate the matter. Most 
citizens did not know that such a bill existed. 

The bill provided no punishment for neglect to declare chil- 
dren, though it contained provisions against falsification or with- 
holding information requested. There was no time limit placed 
on those moving from one address to another in the city for de- 
claring themselves and no way of proving to those that seemed 
delinqueat that they were not just about to do as the bill bid 
when they were questioned. There were no provisions for de- 
termining the proper school in section i, paragraph i. The par- 
ent had to report what school the child had to go to but he 
could not find out save by going to the school where the school 
district lines would be known. And if he went to the school 
the child would be entered there without the necessity of such a 
census. Section i, paragraph 4, seemed drawn to cover such 
questions as appeared on the enumeration card of 1906, but the 
last sentence certainly permitted of what might prove a clog to 
wheels otherwise effective. The bill opened the way for the 
applications of al Ikinds of societies looking for information, 
sociological and otherwise. 

As the time grew nearer for the carrying out of the provisions 
of the bill, it became more and more doubtful whether, however 
well it sounded or looked on paper, it would work. It seemed 
unlikely that the mayor could serve adequately on such a board 
and uncertain whether the Police Commissioner would be willing 
to. 



no Registration of City School Children 

The prospect of having parents suddenly take the initiative and 
report their children to precinct commanders began to grow 
dubious. It looked as if there were possible a more lively con- 
tempt on the part of parents for the compulsory education law 
than ever. 

Efforts to have the bill repealed were met by opposition on the 
part of the State authorities, who insisted on the census, while 
the city authorities could not brook the spending of thousands of 
dollars of school money, when children were clamoring for seats 
for full sessions at school, in order to recount thousands of pupils 
that were already on the school rolls. 

Meanwhile a compulsory education bill, lowering the compul- 
sory age to 7 instead of 8, and making the compulsory education 
period stretch from September to June, instead of October to 
May, was passed. The latter provision had been a crying neces- 
sity for years, as the boys most difficult to hold, those approaching 
14 at the close of school, had been theretofore allowed a month's 
liberty before the law became effective in the fall. But it also 
enlarged by many thousands the number of children the attend- 
ance officers had to look after. If there were too few officers 
before, there certainly would be too few under the new law. Any 
increase in their number would have to be allowed for in the 
budget a year in advance unless a fund or part of it could be 
shifted. 

The Public Edtication Association wanted to see the provisions 
of the census bill carried out in a small " experimental " section 
of the city, as there had been $10,000 voted for the taking of the 
census. But this plan, though thoroughly rational and economic, 
was deemed unfeasible. 

The same Association, reaffirming conclusions arrived at ear- 
lier, namely, that the real trouble with the existing law for com- 
pulsory education lay in lax enforcement, especially on the part of 
the magistrates, sought to control the disposition of cases by the 
miagistrates by systematic surveillance of the cases disposed of by 
magistrates. 

This movement looked toward the establishment of the office of 
a special attorney, either of the Corporation Counsel's office or 
of the Board of Education, whose business it would be to prose- 
cute cases arising under the compulsory education law. (Cf. mite, 
Philadelphia: Report of Principals concerning the Philadelphia 
School Census.) 

It must not be supposed that the Superintendents in charge of 
the Compulsory Law were ignorant of the difficulties of the en- 



New York iii 

forcement of the law or belittled them. On the contrary, the 
report of the Division Superintendent to the City Superintendent 
in 1908 pointed them out and expressed his regret at the condi- 
tion. Nor was the City Superintendent opposed to an enumera- 
tion as such. He guarded jealously the all too little fund that was 
intended for the school system without a census, and did not see 
the propriety or desirability of re-enumerating some 600,000 chil- 
dren for the purpose of catching the small percentage that were 
or might be evading the law. 

Also the Bureau of Child Hygiene, under the Department of 
Health, was broadening out and tabulating on its own account and 
after its own fashion, the children of the city. A physician vis- 
ited the family of every new born child and took account of the 
other children under 2 years of age. These data, with the data 
of the immigration authorities in regard to children of parents 
indicating an intention to reside in New York City, would give 
the names of many children and would enable the Bureau to fur- 
nish them successively as the children became of school age. It 
was suggested, informally, that lists be made monthly by the 
Board of Health of the children arriving at school age. 

This scheme, however, faifed to take cognizance of children 
arriving from other States and not having a brother or sister born 
amongst them whilst the family resided in New York City ; and 
still more, it failed to give due importance to the mobility of the 
population of the city. 

At this juncture it may be interesting to give a few figures 
showing the flux of school population in the city. 

The writer is the principal of a school in the Bronx, a growing 
section, and the following figures are compiled from the register 
of the school : 

September 14, 1908, pupils on register i , 195 

June 30, 1909, pupils on register 1,318 



Net gain in registration 123 

Yet this net gain was secured by the admission of 716 pupils, 
or nearly 6 times as many pupils as the school managed to retain. 
There were, accordingly, 593 discharges during the year for vari- 
ous causes and 179 children, or 30.2%, were discharged in the 
same year that they entered. Viewing the discharges from the 
basis of admissions, we see that of the 716 pupils admitted, 25% 



112 



Registration of City School Children 



were discharged before they had been under the influence of the 
school one year. Taking the changes of condition that called for 
the admission and discharge of these children together, we find 
that there are 1,309 entries, or about as many changes of the 
record as the school had pupils, in June, 1909. If this ratio were 
to hold for the entire city there would be 600,000 changes for the 
police to take cognizance of during the school year. 

The distribution of admission and discharge is given below : 



Admitted 




Discharged 




Boys 


Girls Total 


Boys 


Girls Total 


120 


122 


242 


48 


81 


129 


23 


36 


59 


48 


36 


84 


25 


14 


39 


32 


24 


56 


15 


7 


22 


15 


13 


28 


27 


10 


37 


15 


12 


27 


64 


59 


123 


26 


23 


49 


32 


38 


70 


35 


28 


63 


35 


19 


54 


22 


21 


43 


23 


17 


40 


23 


22 


45 


22 


8 


30 


3Z 


36 


69 



September, '08. 

October, 

November, 

December, 

January, '09. 

February, 

March, 

April, 

May, 

June, 



i2,° 



716 



297 



=96 593 



The reasons for the discharges are given in the following 
distribution : 





1 
0*0 


o-g 


c3 


S 

0. 




^rt 


u 















$ 


-0 







^1 


$ 



ho 







oi 

0) 


CD 
" 


0)^ 



" 


2 




H 


EH 


fe 


tH 





fe 


Q 


H 


H 





September, '08 90 


12 


II 


8 


I 


3 


I 


3 








October, 


37 


9 


12 


10 


I 


15 














November, 


23 


7 


4 


5 


4 


12 


I 











December, 


13 





3 


2 


8 





2 











January, '09 12 


2 


2 


I 


5 


5 














February, 


8 


I 


5 


5 


I 





I 





I 


27 


March, 


37 


2 


5 


9 


5 


5 














April, 


18 





12 


3 


7 


2 


I 











May, 


22 


2 


II 


2 


6 


2 














June, 


31 





2 


3 


I 


I 











31 



291 



35 67 



39 45 



CHAPTER IX 
SUMMARY 

It is obvious from a perusal of the foregoing that Germany 
must have a very efifective system of registration. How is it 
brought about? Partly through the German character, which is 
earnest, docile, thorough, and keenly conscious of the necessity 
of effort; partly through, as Dr. Perry says,^ "Das kleine Wort 
muss." He adds : " The pressure put upon both parents and 
children, in the comparatively few cases in which it is necessary, 
is very strong." The result, too, is secured partly through the 
extremely centralized government, w^hich permits of uniformity of 
law and procedure ; and partly through necessity of military ser- 
vice, which throws the overwhelming might of the whole police 
force into the scale. Germany registers everybody: to register 
children in school is a matter of course, incidental routine as it 
were, in the compilation of a huge statistical directory. 

The French system evidently aims at the same thing, acknowl- 
edges its merit, but cannot quite subscribe to the stringency and 
the steel rigidity of it. There is the same necessity for equalized 
and complete army service, but one feels that the law, though it 
sounds the same, is not the same, just as one sees on crossing the 
Rhine into France that every French young man has been, like 
the German youth, a soldier, but a different sort of a soldier 
after all. 

Whereas, England, in London at least, resorts to an annual ac- 
counting. In a German city, the lists of children of school age 
can be made from the records in the mayor's office ; in London, as 
in America, there must be a house-to-house canvass. 

This is an extremely cumbersome, expensive, and unsatisfactory 
system. It must be supplemented by co-operative street raids and 
accidental waylaying of erring youth. To do the work thor- 
oughly, London requires five times as many attendance officers as 

^ Report on German Elementary Schools and Training Colleges, by 
Charles Copland Perry, New College, Oxford, Rivingtons, Waterloo 
Place, London, 1887. 

"3 



114 Registration of City School Children 

the city of New York has, although the school population is only 
half again as great. 

Yet the American city, officered often by descendants from the 
Fatherland, would repudiate any military regimen like that of 
Germany that placed a mark on every man's door. 

What then are the causes for the failure, for failures they are, 
of all the present systems in America, for the registration of school 
children? 

The prime cause, the one hardest to overcome in a democracy, 
is the indifference of the people. The native American, as well as 
the alien fugitive from military despotism, is averse to a too pry- 
ing system of inspection. The history of every investigation of 
municipal rottenness proves this beyond peradventure. The very 
autonomy of the states leads to a practice so diversified that uni- 
formity of procedure is, at this date, out of the question. Even 
within the limits of a State, many communities never feel the 
necessity of what elsewhere may seem the only solution of a vexed 
and tortuous situation. 

The jealousy of boards, too wilful or too provincial to see their 
common aim, inhibits concerted action, and leaves to one what 
ought to be a function of all. The shortness of pedagogical 
vision, that places, say, a Civil War veteran, at the head of a great 
department of school administration, because he is a Civil War 
veteran, smacks of the days when old soldiers were the customary 
school masters and the habit of subjection to the discipline of the 
field was the only necessary equipment for the administration of 
the discipline of the classroom. 

The attitude of the police, from magistrates to patrolmen, to- 
ward getting the child into school and of keeping him there, is one 
of, if not contempt, at least indifference.^ The clash of the au- 
thorities as to the subject-matter of the curriculum makes itself 
felt in the repugnance or indecision of the coercive power. Edu- 
cation of the parent has been in the past so much a matter of 
chance and whim, that it is difficult to make him realize that the 
later size and complexity of the community render a different 
mode imperative. 

^ Detroit and Providence say they make good use of policemen in 
school service of this character. 



Summary 115 

What are the conclusions from the evidence of the practice of 
the various cities? In no case is the census used as a veritable 
record of names and addresses. In many cases a considerable 
number of changes of address have occurred before the returns 
are in from the enumerators.^ 

In other places, where the law calls for a comparison of census 
lists and school lists, the law is ignored as too difficult of execu- 
tion.* In Nevada, of which the State Superintendent says in his 
report for 1907 that the compulsory education law has been on 
the books since 1873, but never enforced, they have just repealed 
(March, 1909) the clause prescribing such comparison.^ 

The directors of the census bureaus have too limited a con- 
ception of their function^ or if of penetrating mind, are limited by 
parsimonious boards from making their work effective. 

The statistics are too often made up by clerks that are not 
statistical experts, and are no sooner compiled than they are for- 
gotten, as, indeed, many of them ought to be.^ They suggest 
nothing — no forewarning of the necessity for schools in certain 
localities, nor indications of curriculum in others, or anything else 
of real value. 

The enumerator, when an assessor of taxes, has proved indiffer- 
ent and hopelessly lax, so that Pittsburgh despaired of him, Phila- 
delphia avoided him, and New Hampshire gave him up. 

The policeman, chosen for his uniform and not his brains, has 
proved disdainful and negligent in New York and Philadelphia ; 
the specially hired enumerator, lacking experience and tenure of 
office, has been guilty of irregularity, especially where the com- 
pensation has been made proportionate to the number of names 
secured.'^ 



3 Boston and New York. 

* Cf . Detroit ante. 

» Cf . ante the law for Colorado and Idaho. The practice prevailing in 
these two states however, can hardly be a criterion for the practice for 
a community like Boston, Philadelphia, or New York. Ante, will be found 
the law for Wisconsin, but it has been impossible to get satisfactory 
reports yet of the working of the law. 

' Cf . post. Recommendations : The Report, the figures for Kansas 

City. 

"> The State Superintendent of Nebraska in a pamphlet dated June 6, 
1907, says: " In spite of the care exercised in the past years by county 
superintendents in protecting the integrity of the school census, some 



1 1 6 Registration of City School Children 

Of the desirability of the registration of school children, so that 
the authorities may know how many there are, where they are, and 
what intellectual capacity they have, and whether they are men- 
tally and physically fit for schooling and for what kind of school- 
ing they are fit, seems to admit of no question. The State wants 
a registration so that it may know how many it has to provide for ; 
the large city wants a registration for many other things besides. 
But yet, so completely does the idea of " how many " dominate 
even municipal census returns, that it is difficult to glean any 
other interesting data from the figures.® The main difficulty 
arises in getting the local boards to assign enough money for the 
execution of a task, which the legislature, little dreaming of the 
magnitude and complexity of the work, orders, in the perfunc- 
tory course of business, to be done. Yet it is not unlikely that 
the amounts spent by Health Boards in securing some of their 
Vital Statistics, and by private societies in tabulating and codi- 
fying their mentally and physically unfit, are enough in the aggre- 
gate, with what the Board of Education spends through its reg- 
ular salary to attendance officers and special censuses, to make up 
a sum, almost, if not quite, to warrant an efifective enumeration. 
Superintendents are naturally averse to spending money for the 
re-enumeration of children they already know of. This is a very 
sensible objection and one that ought to be frankly met. 

flagrant cases of padding have been brought to light. One school dis- 
trict was found to have padded its school census 67%, reporting over 
1,700 more pupils of school age than were actually residing therein, and 
receiving from the state fund, in one year, over $3,000 to which it was 
not entitled." 

The State Superintendent of Nevada, in his report for 1907-08, says: 
" The school census had been heavily padded in some districts. * * * 
The total surplusage was over 800. * * * j^ one alone being 

514." The previous report, 1905-06, says: "In one school district 
239 census children are reported and only 100 given as enrolled on the 
school register during the year. (Cf . post on the lack of adequate explana- 
tion of such discrepancies.) 

^ The growth of the modern city census out of the state census for 
appropriation, is well shown in the case of New Jersey, which used to 
take a census but does so no longer, the need for it apparently having 
ceased. The appropriation is now based on attendance, not total number 
or potential school population. 



CHAPTER X 
RECOMMENDATIONS 

If the communities of the United States are unwilHng, as they 
are, to accept any such scheme of registration as prevails in 
Germany, is the miaking by them of an effective school registra- 
tion, a goal hopelessly unattainable? By no means. 

The system to be effective must contrive an enumeration : first, 
adequately taken, and second, adequately maintained. The writer 
desires to suggest what in his judgment can be at present accom- 
plished, always realizing that changes looking toward more suc- 
cessful enumeration are bound to be adopted as the country be- 
comes older and the people themselves come to realize the short- 
comings of the method in vogue. He believes that radical meas- 
ures violently different from the present methods have little chance 
of present success, and although admitting the theoretical desira- 
bility of certain drastic reforms, believes it to be the part of wis- 
dom to effect the reforms by degrees. 

Frequency of Enumeration 

The frequency of the enumeration depends, more or less, on 
local conditions. In a community of fluctuating population the 
enumeration should be taken more frequently. An actual enu- 
meration every two years ^ would seem to be frequent enough, 
even in cities of mobile population, if the system of recording 
changes of address and increment of the family were well organ- 
ized. (Cf. ante, London Accommodation Report, 1907.) 

It seems to the writer that changes of address could be fairly 
well controlled by two means: making the janitor or caretaker 
of a house responsible for a report on the children contained 

^ The Educational Commission reporting to the 33rd General Assembly 
of Iowa, January, 1909, recommend a biennial census in June of each 
even numbered year of all between 5 and 21 residing in the district on 
the first of June, with name, sex, age, parent, showing separately the 
number 7 to 14 and the names of those that do not attend school, with 
cause. Similarly for the group 5 to 21 with separate headings for blind, 
deaf, dumb and imbecile. 

The biennial period is used in many places but the state usually calls 
for an annual census in order to make an annual appropriation. 

117 



1 1 8 Registration of City School Children 

therein; and making expressmen responsible for a report on their 
transport of household goods. This seems feasible through the 
bureau of licenses that could revoke for neglect the license of 
janitor and expressman. It would take out of the hands of the 
families most likely to evade school duty the initial report on the 
children of that family, and thus remove in some measure the 
temptation to ignore the compulsory education law. The regis- 
tration of new addresses would become in some measure auto- 
matic, and a well-planned system of checking visits on the part 
of the Bureau of Attendance would secure data that would be for 
the most part correct. 

The Bureau 

For the maintenance ' of 'ilch'^^Si" Bureau of Attendance there 
would be necessary a competent supervisor with assistant heads 
of enumeration districts, which should be accurately located and 
mapped and an adequate force of attendance officers and visitors 
to the homes. 

London believes that 2,500 to 3,000 children is enough for one 
mian to look out for, but with reports from the sources mentioned 
in the latter paragraph of " Frequency of Enumeration," this num- 
ber might be increased to 5,000. The names of 5.000 children 
could be readily tabulated by an enumerator in 6 to 7 weeks pro- 
vided the data called for were not too complex, and provided, too, 
that the enumerator knows his district and his families. This is 
proved by the Philadelphia returns. 

But such a Bureau must be supported by laws that permit of 
supervision over pupils of private and parochial schools. That is 
a condition that makes the German school system so effective: 
the system involves all the schools. In most American cities a 
child may be " lost " off the rolls in any of the following ways : 
I. By moving out of the city and then returning. 2. By removing 
without warning to Another part of the city. 3. By securing a 
physician's certificate of physical inability to attend, and being 
thereafter forgotten. 4. By transferring to a parochial or private 
school and then failing to attend it. In the last case, it is true that 
in some cities it is the custom, so far as the parochial schools are 
concerned, to make use of the truant officers of the public school 
board. But there is no compulsion in this direction and private 
schools practically never use such means. 



Recommendations 119 

Such a Bureau would appropriately have supervision, not only 
of enumeration, but of compulsory education, truancy, and the 
prohibition of child labor. 

Cost 

Applying the theory mentioned under the last head, to the con- 
ditions presented by New York, we should find about 120 attend- 
ance ofHcers necessary. The increased cost of maintaining" such 
a force would be about $60,000 to $70,000 a year, the number jf 
officers being 50 greater than at present, and the salary about 
$1,200 a year.^ But with this amount, much of the work that is 
being done by the Board of Health and by charitable societies, 
could be accomplished. It is not so much the fact that the money 
is not now being spent, but that it is being spent by different or- 
ganisations for a rather haphazard and inefficient enumeration.^ 

The cost of enumeration is much increased by securing data 
not thereafter used and widening the age limits up to which the 
enumeration must be taken. An enumeration of youth 5 to 21 
is much more difficult tO' obtain than an enumeration of youth 
from 6 to 16, and not only on the ground of numbers merely. 
The enumerator's attack is parried with all kinds of questions as 
to why "they" want "him?" "He goes to work," or "He's 
married," etc., etc., is likely to be the rejoinder, and the result 
is waste of time and energy, with friction and ill-feeling on 
both sides. 

If an enumeration is for State appropriation the custom is to 
take limits beyond the limits of usefulness so far as data concern- 
ing the elementary schools are concerned. It behooves the au- 
thorities to recognize this and not make the census fail because 
of lack of precise aim.* 

* The salary starts at $900 and rises to $1,500. 

^ The chief of the Department of Child Hygiene reports that she can 
give no separate figures indicating the cost of maintenance of her depart- 
ment or the registering through her department of the children of the 
city. 

* The Montana report on the school census, 1908, is divided into two 
parts: a. For Apportionment of Public Funds; and b. Statistics Relat- 
ing to Compulsory Education. Under the former are the heads : Number 
between 6 and 21, Male, Female; Under 6, Male, Female. Under the 
latter are the heads: Number between 8 and 14 residing in the county 
Aug. 31, 1907; Number of such children attending school the entire 
term; Number of such children attending private school or who were 
instructed at home. The Superintendent states on p. 53: " Attendance 
is irregular, and many never attend." 



1 20 Registration of City School Children 

Providence reports a cost varying from 6 mills to 17 cents a 
child, though on what basis the writer does not know. In States 
limiting the cost, the median cost is about 4 cents per child. This 
does not mean, however, that an efficient enumeration was always 
secured for this sum. There was that much to spend and it was 
spent and an enumeration was taken, with a result that about 4 
cents was expended on the average for each child. 

The cost of enumeration can be estimated on the basis of the 
salary of the attendance officer for 6 or 7 weeks and allowing for 
each officer 5,000 children. 

That this enumeration should not be paid for on a per capita 
basis of returns is amply evinced by the testimony of those ob- 
serving such method of recompense.^ 

Time of Year 

The time of year best suited to a wholesale enumeration is 
difficult to decide. It depends on the community and local cus- 
tom. To take it during the summer vacation, as in Philadelphia, 
seems unfortunate. Indeed, there it is done partly because the 
attendance officers are paid by the month and would normally 
be discharged when the schools closed. But Philadelphia has 
never published any figures to show how much the census was 
impaired by the fact that families had left town, and the general 
claim of the enumerators there is that by beginning in mid June 
that difficulty is negatived. But it unquestionably interferes. 

An enumeration taken at a certain time because the school 
year closes then and the Superintendent wants the latest figures 
for his report, is not necessarily well taken. 

To take it during the winter may cause unnecessary hardships, 
and to take it in May or October may impair its validity because 
miany families change their address during those months. 

It should, of course, be taken at such time that the data will 
prove of the most value for all the authorities that depend on 
them ; at a time when they will be valid for the longest interval. 
October is the date in New York because of its proximity to the 
beginning of the fall term. The June of Michigan seems in- 
appropriate because of the little opportunity to detect violations 
of the compulsory law. November in Massachusetts is indicated 

^ Cf. ante Summary, on padding the census. 



Recommendations 121 

as unsatisfactory for Boston by the Secretary of Statistics of that 
city. The January of Rhode Island has something to be said 
in its favor, but for a northern cUmate seems severe. It is more 
than hkely that Rhode Island chose January because that month 
begins the calendar year and not because it was the best month 
in which to take a school census. 

To the writer, the early fall seems, in view of the conflicting 
daims, to be the best time, the time that provides the longest 
period of usefulness to the data and the nearest to the opening 
of that term of school which is furthest removed from May 
first, the day on which, in many communities, changes of resi- 
dence take place. 

The time of enumeration should be uniform throughout a state 
or there will be duplication. 

The Enumerator 

Some suggestions have been made in regard to the enumerator 
a few pages earlier,*' but those remarks may be supplemented by 
others more specific. 

The enumerator should be one that knows his district well, 
whose presence inspires respect, and one that can follow instruc- 
tions accurately, and, in those cases for which he has no instruc- 
tions, use good sense and discrimination. 

He should be chosen after proper test, his salary should be 
sufficient to secure his devotion to his task, and his office should 
be secure against attack except on reasonable charges. 

For most purposes the attendance officer makes the best 
enumerator. The use of policemen is a device prompted in some 
cases by economy, and in others by an idea that the uniform 
will elicit willing response. But the pencil is an awkward weapon 
in the hands of most patrolmen and the latter are not fitted by 
inclination or training for their task. 

Chicago employs 18 women among its 28 attendance officers 
but attendance officers did not take the enumeration in that city 
in 1906 or igo8. In Philadelphia there are several women at- 
tendance officers but they all secured physicians' certificates for 
ill-health, permitting them to retain their places as attendance 
officers while avoiding the exhausting stair-climbing and in- 
terrogation of the enumeration. 

* Cf. ante, Summary. 



122 



Registration of City School Children 



The question of interpretation in the foreign sections of large 
cities is troublesome, but the writer believes that with a card of 
questions the intelligent enumerator can get along satisfactorily 
by depending on neighborly help, which is practically never 
lacking. 

An even greater difficulty is the control of the veracity of the 
parent. The Philadelphia committee suggested that the enume- 
rator be empowered to administer an oath and in doubtful cases 
to do so, in order that prosecution might follow if it were deemed 
advisable. (Cf. ante, Law of Nevada.) But such oath would 
necessarily in some cases be " on information and belief " or 
equally dubious grounds, because some parents do not know the 
ages of their children, nor the day on which they were born. But 
the insistence, year after year, on the production of birth or 
baptismal certificates would gradually work a change in this 
direction. The Board of Health of New York City has foreign 
connections that make the issuance of duplicate birth certificates, 
especially for Russian Jews, born abroad, and not recognized 
as citizens by the Russian state, a matter of comparative con- 
venience. 

There ought to be, however, some check on the thoroughness 
of the enumerator's work other than a willing trust in his con- 
science where he is on salary and not paid by the number of 
names he records. The mapping of his district, together with his 
weekly report of streets covered and the names derived there- 
from, would enable the central office to detect, whether, at the 
close, he had finished every street and alley. How easy it is 
to overlook one of these, the writer knows from experience. 

The Record 

The record should be so contrived that it presents readily and 
thoroughly the information desired. If it is to be filed as made, 
thus avoiding the labor and expense of transcription, it must 
be of standard size and so arranged that the data most important, 
usually the name of the child, last name first, is at the top. 

The record may be contrived so as to minimize writing, allow- 
ing the enumerator merely to place a check mark in small squares, 
but that means a large card for each person, and a correspond- 
ing duplication of comparatively useless items such as the enu- 
merator's name. The card for New York City in 1906 was such 



Recommendations 



123 



a record, but it was of awkward size and crowded with items, 
the leading one being, Name of Street. If it was the intention to 
file these records by districts, that was an appropriate heading, 
for the space containing the child's name was in a much less con- 
spicuous place below, (v. App. 27.) 

The Philadelphia record represents the more customary means 
of information, and the Providence record shows the minimum. 
To the writer, the Philadelphia record appears as presenting the 
most desirable headings, inasmuch as they secure the most 
needed information without prolixity or confusion. They are 
weak in the absence of specific reference to the physically or 
mentally ill or unfit. 

The following is suggested as a desirable form. It should 
be in a book, solidly sewed with wide margin at the binding, one 
stiff cover, with 20 lines to the page, the pages 10" x 12^". 
It could then be conveniently used in field work and the total 
of names could be readily checked by the number of pages. 



Name 
(last 
name 
first) 



Sex 


Birthday 


Birth- 
place 
(coun- 
try) 


Birth 
or 

bap- 
tism 
certi- 
ficate 


Parent 
(father, 
mother 

or 
guard- 
ian) 


Address 
(St. 
and 
No.) 


Phys- 
ical 
con- 
dition 
(0. K., 
deaf, 
dumb, 
blind, 
crip- 
pled) 


Mental 
con- 
dition 
(0. K., 
ill) 


School 


Place 
of 
employ- 
ment 


(M. D. Y.) 























Work- 
ing 
certi- 
ficate 



For the maintenance of a continuous census, however, the card 
system must be employed, and the administrator must face the 
problem of having the street record for the office record, or of 
having the street record rewritten for filing. This makes the 
number of items that are to go on the record of the utmost 
importance. Unless the enumerators are unusually skilled the 
chances of having the street record made in a way that would be 
satisfactory for filing are very few. 

But if various societies are dependent on the information thus 
secured, other headings may be requisite so that proper socio- 
logical or hygienic statistics may be gathered. But it is a waste 
of time to gather this material, as was done in the New York 
census, of 1906, about places of abode, basement or flat, etc., if 



124 



Registration of City School Children 



the data are not used.^ And they were not used in that case. 
Time is always an important consideration in the taking of a 
census because the figures so rapidly grow stale, and unneces- 
sary items should be rigorously excluded. 

It is undesirable to have items that will lead to subterfuge on 
the part of parents, or confusion or neglect on the part of enu- 
merators. Thus the New York card called, in the 1906 census, 
for "location of school " when in most cases the location was 
perfectly well known or indicated on the same card by the 
number or name of the school. (Cf. No. 7 Instruction to Enu- 
merators, App. 25.) 

The Report 

It seems desirable at this place to set forth some of the things 
that a Bureau Chief should have in mind in making up his report. 

The report should be made intelligible to those for whom it 
is intended, and, as far as possible, to the ordinary citizen. Un- 
related figures are never intelligible to anybody though they often- 
times look imposing and are regarded frequently with admiration 
by those that see them streaming over the page.^ 

' In Philadelphia, time is taken to ascertain the country of the parents' 
birth but no facts relative thereto except " foreign born " appear in 
the report. 

' The reader is left to draw his own conclusions from these " census " 
figures from the Kansas City Report of 1908. Four years, from 1897 
to 1 90 1 have been omitted by the writer as not important so far as the 
general result is concerned. The gravity with which this array is given 
is nothing short of amusing: 



Year 


Total 
White 


Total 
Colored 


Year 


Total 
White 


Total 
Colored 


1889 

1890 

1891 

1892 

1893 

1894 

■1895 

1896 

1897 


39,020 
39 , 020 
39,020 
39 ,020 
39,020 
37>7i6 
37,716 
39-242 
39-242 


3-700 
3-700 
3-700 
3.700 
3,700 
3-824 
3,824 
4,498 
4,498 


1901 

1902 

1903...... . 

1904 

1905 

1906 

1907 

1908 


56,446 
56,446 
59-270 
59-270 
63-471 
63-471 
63,471 
63-471 


5-303 
5,303 
6,250 
6,250 
6,263 
6,263 
6,263 
6,263 



Recommendations 125 

The figures should be given over as wide a range of years as 
possible.^ There should be a background for the figures that 
will permit of profitable comparison.^*' An explanation of ob- 
vious discrepancies should be at least attempted.^^ 

^Connecticut gives classified figures from 1876. West Virginia gives 
enumeration and enrollment from 1865. The figures are significant: 
In 1865, enumerated, 84,418; enrolled, 15,972. In 1908, enumerated, 
351,966; enrolled, 255,059. Small wonder that the Superintendent 
urges a strong compulsory law with a truant officer behind it. 

The Oregon report gives statistics since 1873 with the enumeration 
of children distributed under every age, but there is no adequate way 
of telling whether the children that ought to be in school are really 
there. Thus the enumeration gives for 1908 total 4-20, 160,042; and 
for the number of pupils 4-20 on register 116,364. But the compulsory 
age is 9-14 and there is no explanation of whether the remainder of 
43,678 are distributed below 9 or above 14, or whether they are non- 
attendants or truants. There is no distinction of physically or mentally 
unfit. 

'" Milwaukee endeavors to get a background for some of its figures by 
estimating the population of the city. Thus in the report for 1907, 
the school population, 109,658 (4 to 20 years) is multiplied by 
2.9073148526, a number obtained by actual division of the enumerated 
total population of 1905 by the enumerated school population of 1905. 

Iowa refers back to the population figures for the state given in the 
TJ. S. census for 1900. Cf. post. 

Springfield, Mass., post — gives the U. S. figures for 1900, and State 
figures for 1906. 

" Wisconsin in the state report for 1908 gives the number attending 
32 weeks or more for cities, and 20 weeks or more for counties. No 
explanation is made, however, of the difference between the number 
7-14 enumerated, 239,393, and the number attending 20 weeks or more 
190.358. 

The Washington state report for 1906 gives statistics of children 
over 6 not attending school but does not account for them. Thus in 
Pierce county 1,474 children are recorded between 8 and 15 as not attend- 
ing, but no explanation of why they do not attend is given. 

The Tennessee report for 1907 shows Davidson county with 34,999 
enumerated whites, but only 15,062 enrolled whites. 

In Iowa no attempt is made in the 1905 report to explain why the 
per cent of attendance on enumeration is 27 in Dubuque and 88 in What 
Cheer, 40 in Des Moines W. and 59 in Des Moines E. The Federal census 
of 1900 gives youth 5-21 as 767,870, while the school officers give for 
that year 731,154. 

Cf. Oregon supra. 

Connecticut gives: Average length of school in days; Children 
enumerated; Number registered in school; Different pupils registered in 



126 Registration of City School Children 

The figures should be properly distributed and classified. It 
is a waste of time to get the ages distributed and then to lump 
them in the report. Equally futile is it to get the numbers for 
public, private, and parochial schools and institutions, and the 
number of deaf, dumb, blind, and mentally defective, and not 
so to report them. 

Percentages of . such items as : potential school population to 
total population; actual school attendance and registration to 
potential school population; number attending more than a mini- 
mum of time, etc., etc., should all be expressed and not left to 
inference or calculation. Such an item as 5,201 enrolled but not 

public school; Per cent of different pupils registered of those enumerated; 
Number in private schools and public schools; Per cent of these last 
on those enumerated ; Per cent of attendance on registration. 

Oregon, v. ante, gives the age distribution. 

Ohio has separate figures for children that have been re-enrolled. 
The Catholic schools for the Diocese of Columbus also render a full 
report that appears in the Public School report. The report for 1907 
gives: Youth between 6 and 8; 8 and 14; 14 and 16; 16 and 21. 

The Springfield, Mass., report in the Municipal Register has a page 
like the following : 

Population 1900, U. S. census, 62,059; State census 1906, 75,968. 

Number of children 5-16 in Springfield, Sept. i, 1906, 13,359, as follows: 
Age — 5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 Totals 

Ward I 

" 2 

" 3 

" 4 .. 

" 5 

Etc 

Totals 

In public schools 

In parochial schools 

In private schools 

6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 Total 
Not attending: 131 52 15 6 5 2 4 8 9 250 416 898 

Boys of 14 Girls of 14 Boys of 15 Girls of 15 
Non-attendants: 128 86 200 156, all at work. 

Illiterate male minors over 14, 231; ibid, female, 131. Total, 362. 
School enrollment is given also. 



Recommendations 



127 



attending, may be an insignificant number or an alarming one. 
It all depends on the size of the community.^^ 

*^ Cf. Milwaukee report ante, in regard to relation of school figures to 
total population. 

The Iowa school law demands the number of days attendance of each 
pupil, with reasons for non-attendance if for less than 16 weeks. 

New Hampshire reports the ratio of enrollment to census. 

Nebraska gives the number attending f of the school year. 

In this connection, too, the following tables, compiled from the U. S. 
census for 1900, present some rather interesting figures. Whether the 
totals of population from which the per cents are derived are correct 
or not, the comparison of the states among themselves and the cities 
with their respective states suggest interesting inquiry. The figures 
have the advantage of being obtained to some extent by the same enu- 
merators, and therefore, if they are erroneous are erroneous in the same 



Table showing the per cent of children 5 to 14 on total population 
according to the U. S. Census of 1 900 

Maine 18 



Vermont 18 

New Hampshire 17 

Massachusetts 18 

Rhode Island . , 19 

Connecticut 18 

New York 18 

New Jersey 19 

Pennsylvania 20 

Delaware 20 

Maryland 22 

Michigan 21 

Ohio 20 

Indiana 21 

Illinois 21 

Missouri 23 

Wisconsin 23 

Iowa 22 

Minnesota 24 

Kansas 23 

Nebraska 25 

Virginia 25 

West Virginia 24 

North Carolina 26 

South Carolina 27 



Georgia 26 

Florida 25 

Alabama 27 

Mississippi 27 

Louisiana 26 

Arkansas 27 

Tennessee 25 

Kentucky 24 

Texas 27 

Oklahoma 27 

Indian Territory 27 

North Dakota 24 

South Dakota 25 

Montana 18 

Wyoming 19 

Colorado 19 

New Mexico 25 

Arizona 21 

Utah 26 

Idaho 23 

Washington 20 

Oregon 20 

Nevada 17 

California 18 



128 Registration of City School Children 

Table showing the per cent of children 5 to 14 on total population of 

the ten largest cities of the United States according 

to the U. S. census of 1900 

New York 19 Baltimore 20 

Chicago 20 Cleveland 20 

Philadelphia 18 Buffalo 21 

St. Louis 20 San Francisco 15 

Boston 16 Cincinnati 19 



APPENDIX 



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132 



Registration of City School Children 



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Appendix i33 

3. Form A. Cf. The School Commission, ante, Berlin form given by 
the School Commission for entering a child in school. This is the Com- 
mission's record. 
School Commission. 

Relative to the admission to school of the boy (girl) 

bom , 19 Journal No 

(First and last name of the child, last name underscored.) 

1 . First and last name of the applicant 

(If both parents are living, the name of the father is to be taken. 
In the case of deserted wives, widows, divorced couples, and un- 
married women, the name of the female applicant may be accepted. 
So in the case of step-children and foster children.) 

2. Rank or calling • 

3. Residence 

4. Religion 

5. a. How many children already confirmed has the applicant? 

b. How old are they ? • • • • 

c. Of these the following attend as indicated : — 

First name Age School 



(In case of the fatherless.) 
d. Are they under guardianship and who is the guardian?. 



The applicant is given to understand that he does not have to pay 
any indemnity or fee by whatsoever name it may be known, but must, 
on the other hand, see to it that the child appears in school with clean 
clothes and provided with the necessary text-books and writing mater- 
ials. A copy of the instructions is to be given to him with the admonition 
to observe them in his own interest and that of his children. 

Berlin, , 19 Registrar 

Directed to the School on the , 19 

Berlin, , 19 Entered in the record of the chairman 

of the School Commission Private School. 

Seal Signature Seal Signature 



134 Registration of City School Children 

4. Form B. Cf. The School Commission, ante, Berlin form issued 
by the School Commission to the pupil on his entry into school. 

Certificate of Application for Admission to School 

(last name underscored.) 

Born , 19 is herewith directed to the 

Gemeinde School or school of Principal Street, 

No 

Berlin, , 19 

The School Commission 

Chairman. Seal 

Rank and Address of Parents 



To be filled out in case of presenta- For admission, elsewhere, the par- 

tion to a private school. ents must report to the chair- 

a. Entered in the record of the man of the 

private school. School Commission, Mr 

Berlin, ,19 St., No 

Seal Member of the Office hours 

School Commission charged with Berlin, , 19 

the inspection of the record. Head teacher 

b. Cancelled on account of removal Principal 

to the district of the 

School Commission. 

Berlin, 

Seal 



5. Form C. Cf. The School Commission, ante, Berlin form issued 
by the Commission to the school, on the entry of a pupil therein. 

NOTICE 
for the head teacher of the gemeinde school, for the prin- 
cipal Mr 

son (daughter) of 

born, , 19 has been directed to proceed to your 

school on , 19 

Berlin, ,19 

School Commission. 



Appendix ^25 

6. Solingen, Form III. Cf. Solingen, ante, is used in case of the 
transfer of a pupil, and provides means of filling out by the various officials 
to whom it is transmitted. It passes from the head-master to the mayor 
of the same place, thence to the burgermeister of the new place of resi- 
dence. From him it goes to the head-master of the new school, then 
back to the burgermeister and then to the mayor's office from which 
it came. From there it is returned for filing to the school that issued 
it. On the back are the data of the child's residence and schooling. 
The blank is of foolscap size, 8 x 13 inches. 

Solingen, ^9 • • 

I herewith inform the office of the Mayor of Solingen, that the here- 
inafter named child that should attend school, has removed from 

to 

Rector: Headmaster: 

Solingen, 19 • • 

This original, to be returned, sent to the Burgermeister's office at 
with the request to send it to the proper school there 
for further attention. • Mayor. 

, I9-- 

This original, to be returned, sent to the Rector (Head- 
master) at for entry in the list of school children. 

Burgermeister of 

I9-- 

Original sent back to the Burgermeister's office at 

The child has been entered in the list of school children. 

Rector. Headmaster. 

, I9-- 

Original sent back to the Mayor's office at Solingen after entry. 

Burgermeister. 

Solingen, • ^9 • • 

1. To amend the census rolls. 

2, Original sent to the local Rector (Headmaster) tor 

the elision of the name of the child from the list of school children. 

Mayor^ 

(See next page for back of this blank.) 



136 



Registration of City School Children 



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Appendix 137 

7. Form D. Cf. The School Commission, ante. Berlin form issued 
by one school commission to another commission when a pupil changes 
address. 

NOTICE 

for the School Commission 

Mr , whose son (daughter) has attended 

hitherto the gemeinde school (private school of prin- 
cipal, ) will move on the , to 

Str., No and has therefore received from us the certificate of 

application with instructions to present himself from his new address 
to secure the new admission of his son to school. 

Berlin, , 19. . 

The School Commission. 

Signature of the Chairman of the Signature of the head teacher or 
Commission. school principal. 



8. Solingen report on absences and Mayor's order for citation. Warn- 
ing. 

If the child fails to appear, his name is entered on 

Form IV 

Year, 19 . . 

Official Business of the Mayor of Solingen Gemeinde, Solingen. 

List of Absentees of the Class of school 

at from to 19.. 

Executed from column i to 7 by the undersigned and sent by him 

to the local school inspector at to-day. 

1 9 ■ • Teacher. 

Received , 19 . . , and delivered here to-day to the Mayor 

1 9 • • School Inspector: Rector. 

Those persons indicated by the following numbers: are 

directed to appear at on , 19.., at .... 

o'clock . . M. 

Solingen 19 . . Mayor. 

Official Record of Warning Given at Solingen on 19... 

According to the annexed record, the parents or guardians indicated 
in the foregoing list are cited to appear to-day at the Bureau of Police. . . . 

The persons cited under Nos , appeared in accordance 

with the summons. They were rigorously cautioned against detaining 
their children or wards from school, with the notice that every subse- 
quent unlawful absence in the course of the following weeks will entail 
certain punishment. 

Pursuant to which the annexed record was accepted, confirmed, 
and subscribed. 



138 



Registration of City School Children 



CO 


1 








12 

Date 

of ^? 
official 
warn- 
ing 


S 






Q 






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The 

party 

summoned 

to the 

Burger- 

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not 
ap- 
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Cited 

to 

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on 


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9 

Date 

of 
cita- 
tion 


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8 

Com- 
ment by 
school 
board 






7 

Remark 
of the 
teacher 

as 

required 

by the 

order 

of 
Feb. 13 
1874 






6 

No. of 
absen- 
ces 






5 

School 

absences 

have 
occurred 

a. on those 

days 

marked 

X for a 

whole day; 

b. on those 
marked / 

for 

half -day 

from., to.. 






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Appendix 139 

9- Form V. Solingen, order of Mayor for punishment of delinquent 
parents. Police certificate of execution. 

1. No of the Penalty List, Year 19 . . 

2. The misdemeanor was proved by the testimony of 

3. The , at , in the week from 

to , 19.., on days, did not keep 

h . . child attending school. 

It is therefore herewith decreed against , according to 

sec, I. of the law of April 23, 1883, the Cabinet Order of May 14, 1825, 

and June 20, 1835, that a fine of marks be paid into the city 

treasury of Solingen in default of which an imprisioment of 

hours shall enter. If the believes that he has been too 

harshly treated by this punishment, an appeal within a week of the 
entry of this order may be made in writing to the undersigned body, or to 
the proper court in writing, or through the record .... If no such applica- 
tion is made within this period, the fine becomes irrevocable. If the 
accused is prevented by circumstances beyond his power from taking 
advantage of this period of grace, he may be reinstated in his original 
position. The application must be made within one week after the 
removal of the obstacles by attestation of the causes of neglect before 
the Board of Police or the Court. 

Board of Police. 

Solingen, , 1 9 • • Mayor. 

4. The foregoing order has been submitted to-day 

for execution to , or, in his absence, to The 

acceptance of the presentation can be refused on no legal grounds, and 
it was accordingly deposited at the place. 

As there could be found at the residence of the accused no relative, 
servants, janitor, or landlord, the order was deposited in the Office of 
the Chairman of the Gemeinde, of the Police, of the Post-Office, and 
that fact was indicated by a written notice firmly fixed to the door of 
the residence, as well as communicated orally to other residents of the 
house. Police Sergeant 

5. Executed, and the aforementioned treasury informed of the 
immediate collection of the fine and costs. 

Board of Police. 

Solingen, 19 . . Mayor. 



1 40 Registration of City School Children 

10. Form VI. Solingen, order of Mayor for punishment of delin- 
quent parents where personal service fails. 

No. Penalty List. 

You have, in the week from to 19 • • , not 

maintained your child for days in school. 

This misdemeanor has been proved by the testimony of 

Therefore, against you, pursuant to sec. i. of the law of April 23, 1883, 
the Cabinet Order of May 14, 1825, and June 20, 1835, there enters 
a fine to the city treasury of marks, in default of which imprison- 
ment for hours. Should you deem yourself too severely punished 

by this decree, you may, within one week of the presentation of this 
decision, appeal to the subscribed board orally or in writing, or to the 
proper court orally or through its clerk, for a judicial decision. If such 
application is not made within the time, the penalty is irrevocable. 

The accused is, in case of neglect to avail himself of the period of grace, 
to be considered as in the original situation if, by the phenomena of 
nature or other unavoidable accidents, he is prevented from action within 
that space of time. 

The application must be made to the court or the board of police within 
one week after the obstacles have been removed, by deposition and 
attestation of the causes of neglect. 

Solingen, , 19 . . Board of Police, Mayor. 

Executed : Treasury 

To , , No. ... 

Solingen, , 19 • • marks, paid. 

Police Sergeant. Solingen, 19 . . 

Treasurer. 



11- Berlin warning to delinquent parents. 
Form 146 

The Mayor's Office Berlin , 19 . . 

Folio No 

The school attendance of your son , daughter 

has been irregular for some time and all admonition from class 

teacher and rector has been in vain. The school commission has sought 
to communicate this to you and to inform you that you will suffer the 
penalty of the law if the neglect continues. As you have not yet been 
interviewed, I inform you herewith that if any further unexcused neglect 
on the part of your child occurs, your punishment therefor will ensue. 
I call your attention to the fact that for unexcused absences, parents 
foster-parents, and guardians are liable to arrest, and, according to the 
Royal Decree of December 22, 1899, are punishable by a fine of from 
I to 15 marks, and, in case of inability to pay, with imprisonment up to 
15 days. 

To 

Attest. 

City. 



Appendix 141 

12. Berlin warning to parents that report children " ill." 
Form 175 

The Mayor's Office Berlin , 19 . . 

No School 

The repeated neglect not sufficiently well founded, of your 

to attend school, compels me to inform you that in case 

of further absence I can recognize sickness as a sufficient ground of 
excuse, only if it is certified to by a physician's attestation. You can 
secure such an attest with the aid of the Chairman of the School Com- 
mission, Mr , from School or Poor doctor. 

If further absence of the child is not attested by such physician, I 
shall be compelled to impose punishment. 
To By order : 



13. Berlin notice by head master to the School Commission on absences 
with voucher of the Commission to the head master or the school police. 

Form 8, City Hall, Room 84 School week from , 19. . 

No. of notice No. of School Location: St 

No , Class No. of School Commission 

Received by Commission on , No. . . 

RESPONSIBLE FOR SCHOOL ATTENDANCE 

Rank, first and last names 

(Women married, maiden name) 

Birthday and birthplace of respondent 

Nationality (if foreign) 

Residence : St ; No (Exact location) 

First and last name of child 

born on , has in the current school week been absent from 

instruction on (always to be filled out). The child has 

missed instruction continuously since We have not received 

certain evidence that the absences are properly excused. The previous 
instances known to us are given. 



142 Registration of City School Children 

In accordance with the Regulation of Mar. 8, 1902, No. 33, gen. there 

has been held with under , an interview 

concerning the absences of the child. 

Remarks of Rector or Teacher. 

Berlin, Saturday, , 19 . . 

Rector Address; Teacher Address. 

To Deputy for proof and answer to the accompanying 

questions (next page). 

Berlin, Monday, 19 . . . 

Chairman School Commission 

Address : St. No 

REPORT OF THE DEPUTY 
Mr , I have been unable to find. To the written sum- 
mons, Form 113, to come to me, he has made no reply. 
Berlin , 1 9 • • Deputy. 



Question i . What are the grounds of absences and by whom given ? . . . 

Question 2 . Were the absences excusable or not and why ? 

I deem the absences 

Question 3. Is the person answering warned orally of this search and 

admonished, yes or no ? (See below.) 

Berlin, , 19 • • Deputy. 

Address: St., No. ...... (Date and signature of deputy 

must never be omitted. He must return the form at the latest on Friday 
of the current week to the chairman of the commission. All 3 questions 
are to be answered. The warning is, as far as possible, to be given anew 
in each case and noted whether followed or neglected.) 

Sent with the foregoing report and disposition to the (strike out the 
one not intended to be read) 
City Police, Division III, School Police 

Rector of the Gemeinde School No 

Berlin, 19 . . Chairman School Commission No 

(To be sent to the Bureau of School Police if the respondent cannot be 
found, or if the unfounded absences have occurred after earlier warning. 
To be sent to the Rector if the absences are excused, or if the warning is 
given for the first time. The sending to the School Police has to be noted 
in the portfolio of the School Deputation.) 



Regulation of punishment 
No 



True copy made. 



Sent by , 



Appendix j . , 

14. Berlin official document of entry of fine of delinquent parent 
Form lo goes to the culprit by mail. It duplicates the information 
m Form 9. 
Form 9 

Municipal Police Administration Berlin C. 2, iq . . 

City Hall, Rooms 80, 84, 85. 

Part III. School Police Concerning Notice of Neglect 

Mayor's Office No 

DECISION 

1. To 

with record 

Your 

Pupil of the Gemeinde School No 

St , No , Class 

has remained from school without 

sufficient excuse on 

Proof: With regard to school absence: 

Notice of Rector to Mr 

With regard to failure to produce adequate 
excuse: Notice of Member of School 

Commission to Mr 

There is imposed, on the basis of the Royal 
Jcree of the Province of Brandenberg of 

Sept. 23, 1904, against you a fine of 

marks, or, if that is not paid, an imprisonment 

°^ days. This fine is to be paid within 

one week during the hours 9-2 at the office 
for school fines, City Hall, 2 floor, R. 85. If 
sent by mail it must be prepaid, and beside 
your name and address the number given 
above, under Regulation of Punishment must 
be put after the Record No. below. Stamps 
are not accepted in payment. 

If you feel this punishment is too severe, 
you may, Within One Week, by placing 
the order before the Municipal Police Admin- 
istration, Part III, (School Police) or the court 
pertaining thereto, secure a judicial decision. 
If a decree is not had, nor payment follow, 
within this period, the order for punishment 
becomes completely operative. At the same 
time you are informed that every subsequent 
unfounded absence on the part of one of your 
children, will cause further penalty to be 
exacted of you. 

2. Forms 49 and 50 to Rector, and School 
Commission. 

Again sent with record after 2 weeks. 



On 



Decree 



I. Form 16 



2. After 4 weeks 



Berlin 19 

By order : 



Record No Municipal Police III. 



. Deptity. 



1 44 Registration of City School Children 

15. Berlin order to parent to appear and pay fine in arrears. 

Form 88 

Municipal School Administration 

Part III. School Police 

Mayor's Office 

Punishment Control No 

File No Munic. Pol. III. 

The Punishment Control Number 

and the File Number are to be looked Berlin C. 2, , 19 . . 

up and given. City Hall. 

You are hereby notified, as the order of the day of 

against you for marks fine has not been executed, 

to appear personally within one week to avoid the entry of the decree of 

day's imprisonment. For this purpose present yourself at the 

Jail at the Police Court, Alexander St., second entry, Room 19, ground 
floor, to the left, any day between 8 A. M. and 6 P. M., except Sundays 
and holidays and Bring This Order With You. 
SEAL OF By Order:— 

MUNICIPAL Signed 

POLICE Attested by: 

To Magistrat. 

Here. 



Appendix 



145 



16. Berlin order to levy on property of delinquent parent for non- 
payment. Sheriff's return. Thi.s form permits of making out a report 



regarding the various alternatives 
of the order of punishment. 

Form 1 6 

Municipal Police Administration 

Part III. School Police 

Mayor's Office 



Sheriff's Order 

1. Amount seized and herewith 
discharged. 

2. Defendant cannot be found at 

given address; on he 

moved without notice. 

3. Attachable property at 

in presence of i 

was sought but not found. 



Berlin, , ip. . 

Sheriff. 

Business Address Vol. A.I. 

Berlin, , 19 . . 

Returned with above report of 
Sheriff. 

Magistrate. 

Commission for Execution. 
By Order: 

Record No , Municipal 

Police III. 



that may ensue in the execution 

Berlin, , ig. . 

To 
The Magistrate, Commission for 
Execution 

Of living at 

St., No , I demand 

the outstanding penalty for neglect 

of school duty amounting to 

marks by executive process and 
delivery of the same to the school 
treasury, City Hall, No. 85. 

By Order: 

marks, pfenn. 

are under No received. 

Berlin, , ig . . 

School Treasury. 



Disposition of the Case 
Information sent to the Rector 
and School Commission by Form 



149- 

2. Added to file. 

Berlin, , 19. . 

1. Form 68 sent to Registry of 
Inhabitants. 

2 . Review after 4 weeks 

Berlin, 19. . 



1 . Summons 
Form 88. 

2. Notice to 
(a, b). 



to defendant by 
jail by Form 87 



3- 



Review after 
Berlin 



I month 



19. 



1 46 Registration of City School Children 

17. Berlin decree of imprisonment for non-payment of school fine. 

Form 87b 

Municipal Police Administration 

Part III. School Police City Hall. 

Mayor's Office Berlin C. 2, , 19 . . 

Regulation of Punishment No 

Record No Municipal Police III. 

It is requested that in answering this communication, the above 
numbers be given. 

By an order duly issvied by against 

on account of the violation of the 

Regulations governing School Police, there is 
decreed a fine of marks, or, failing pay- 
ment thereof, of days imprisonment. 

As the above named has not, in the course of 
one week defrayed payment, I order him to be 
taken to the police jail in fulfillment of the sentence. 

To the President of Police : By Order: 

Part VI Here Attested by magistrat 

Disposition of Case : To Precinct of Police 

Concerning discharge. The payment of the fine discharges. 

For discharge, note whether the fine has been paid elsewhere or in 
the interval, or whether an appeal has been taken or the order recalled. 
In case of payment to the city school treasury, the accused is to have 
noted on the coupon of the postal order, the above number of the Regula- 
tion of Punishment. 

Berlin, , 19 ■ • 

PART VI. 



Appendix 



147 



18. Berlin police record of imprisonment in lieu of fine 

Berlin C. 2, 



19' 

City Hall 

Disposition of Case 

To Police Jail 



Form 87a 

Municipal Police Administration 

Part III. School Police 

Mayor's Office 

Regtdation of Punishment No 

True Copy 

Here 

with the most respectful request to 

to execute a sentence of imprisonment for 

days by order of for violation of the 

regulations governing school police. 

By Order : 

SEAL Attested by 

Record No Magistrat of 

Regulation of Punishment No 

True Copy 

Municipal Police Part III. School Police. 
Respectfully submitted : 

The has (not) under- 
gone the punishment of days imprisonment. 

Berlin, , 19- • 

Police Jail 
To Municipal PoHce III. 



19. Form E. Cf. The School Commission, ante. Berlin quarterly 
report by the school to the School Commission on registration. 

Report of the Registration of the School for 

i9- 

The class contains : 



Room No. 



Class 



Capacity 

of 

class 



At 
parents' 
expense 



At 

public 

expense 



Total 



Total Head teacher 

Berlin, , 19 . . School principal 

(Note by author — This report is sent to the school commission with a 
duplicate to the school deputation.) 



148 



Registration of City School Children 



20. Fomi F. Cf. The School Commission, ante. Berlin quarterly 
report to the School Commission of those excused from attending school. 

Notice of Exemption 

ot those pupils of School , who, because they possess 

" work-books " aie exempted from afternoon instruction from 

, until , 19 . . 



First and 

last name 

of child 



Rank and 

address of 
parents 



Birthday 

of 

child 



Name of 
factor)^ 

or 
sewing 
school 



Remarks 



21. Card for indexing all pupils of Philadelphia schools. 

This card is white. Formerly the city used also a yellow card having the 
same entries, which card was sent to the schools and used to check the 
names on the school register. The yellow card is still used but only now 
in the case of children absent. Both bear on the back these entries : 

Date of preliminary notice served. 

Date of prosecution and results. 

Remarks. 

Date. 




Rm 



Gr 



Absent 



Rei) 



Certificate 



Date of visit 

«jf attendence poTufrlpn^Phi 

officer and re 

poi-t of absence 



of 
pfiy. 
cer 



Data 

of 
re- 
turn 



Appendix 



149 



22. Heading of page of enumerator's street book, Philadelphia. 
Philadelphia: Method of Enumerators. 



Cf. 



fcmti 



23. Weekly Report of the Philadelphia Fchool Census Enumerator. 
Board of Public Education 
BUREAU OF COMPULSORY EDUCATION 
699 City Hall, Philadelphia 

REPORT OF ENUMERATION 

For week ending 19.. 

Ward 

Time lost, and cause 

Territory covered and streets named 























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ATTEND/KNCE OFnCtK- 



1^0 Registration of City School Children 

24. School census blank for Newport, R. I., similar to the Providence, 
R. I., form. Cf. Providence, ante. 

STATE OF RHODE ISLAJ^D, 

DepcCrtment of MduQation. 



SCHOOL CENSUS, 1907 
City of Newport 



Ward 



NA.ME OF CHILD 



AGE SEX 



ATTENDANCE DURING YEAR. 1906 

At Public Schools Weeks 

At Parochial Schools.. Weeks 

At other Private Schools Weeks 



PARENT'S OR GUARDIAN'S NAME 



RESIDENCE 



Appendix i§i 

25. Instructions to enumerators, school census, New York City, 1906. 
TO REMOVE BLANKS FROM COVER SIMPLY RAISE HINGES IN FRONT. B^ 

INSTRUCTIONS TO ENUMERATORS 



1. Enumerator^ are ' expected to do their work 
accurately and thoroughly, the residence of every 
child between four and eighteen years of age must 
be visited and the necessary information obtained. 
One blank must be filled out properly for each child. 
All names, ag? s and addresses will be compared by 
the Department of Education with the names, ages 
and addresses of children now attending school. 

2. The name and address of child, the name of 
parent, and the name and number of the school or 
institution shall be written on Ihe blank. Other infor- 
mation may be indicated by check marks or numbers. 
The enumerator must write his last name with shield, 
precinct, section and block numbers on each blank. 

3. All children between eight and fourteen years 
bf age are legally compelled to attend some school 
Continuously during the school year, if they iare 
physically able to attend. Boys between the ages of 
fourteen and sixteen years are compelled to attend 
school unless they are regularly employed at some 
useful employment. Children between fourteen and 
sixteen who are regularly employed during the day 
and who have net completed the course in an ele- 
mentary school are compelled to attend evening 
school for sixteen weeks each year. All children 
must have completed their fifth year studies in school 
or have become sixteen years of age before they are 
allowed to leave school. 

4. "Physically unable to attend school" means that 
the child has some chronic illness or that a physician 
has certified that such child is not in fit physical 
condition to attend school. 

5. "Mentally ill"- means that the child has a weak 
or defective mind and can not comprehend instruc- 
tion in school. Information on this point should be 
given by parents, if possible, voluntarily and enu- 
merators piust not question them too closely concern- 
ing, the mental condition of their children. 



6. "A public elementary school" means any public 
school of lower grade than a high school. "A 
parochial school" means a school conducted in con- 
nection with a church or parish. "A private school" 
IS one conducted by "some person or private corpora- 
tion, and is here distinguished from a public ot 
parochial school. 

7. It will be sufficient to record the number of a 
public school when it is accurately given. Many 
parents or children will not know the name or num- 
ber of a school, but they will know its location, from 
which the enumerator may determine the name. In 
all such cases the location must be recorded correctly. 

8. Any child between the ages of eight and four- 
teen who is physically able to attend school and is 
kept from school or at work by parents or others, 
is "illegally detained at home or at work," and must 
be so recorded. 

9. The question, "Has child a work certificate?" 
refers to a certificate issued by the Board of Health,. 
stating that the. child is fourteen years of afee and 
has attended school the required time* 

10. "A truant" is a child who is sent to school but 
refuses to attend. Truants must not be confused 
with absentees (those temporarily absent for cause) 
or non-attendants (those wtiling to attend school 
but prevented by some condition or circumstance), 

11. The number of children to be enumerated in 
any one day by each enumerator will b'e determined 
by the captain of the precinct. All children at any 
one address should be enumerated in the same day, 
and on the following day the next consecutive resi- 
dence should be visited. 

12. All check marks should be made thus; V, and 
immediately following or under the item to be 
checked. 

13. In cases where parents or those who might give 
correct information are "not at home," the enumerator 
must return as often as necessary, until the infor- 
mation is received. 



^S' 



Registration of City School Children 



26. School census blank proposed for New York City by the Com- 
mittee on Physical Welfare of School Children and the New York Child 
Labor Committee for the school census of 1906. Cf. New York, ante. 




Public K i hde;^qj»btei 



P^;SLIC HiSH SCMOOl- . 



PyBLKi Truant School 



Public EvffNiMQ S^^oot- 



PAROCHIAL SCMOPL 



PaiVATE . IweTITUTtQN 



PyftLlQ IwBTITUTtON 



OUT OF SCHOOL 



,v. |. 



- I" 



Caw ChilP RbaD qb WRITE EnpySM t 



C^tjC^jUO RtAD QH WRITE AMY LANQUAQgJ, 



OATE-OOTOBtH- 



Appendix 



^53 



27. School census blank for the Borough of Manhattan, City of 
""New York, 1906. Cf. New York, ante. 



KAHHATTAS 
The City of Jfew York 

Dept. of EdscaHon 
tbisi EJeimlfU Censue 

October, ig«6 



SMUffil Ho. 
^iKlt. Mo._ 






pr?dact Eo._ 
^Idiii Ho 



Street Wumbet 
















»««E or STMET 
















F1fi9r0(ni^ 
















— 






aawmem 
( 


t 








5 






i 


2 


6 




. 


Infefmetlon Sef«c4 




3 


7 


W)lr4e H« 


lut Npjne 




Las! WaiiiB 0' Parent 
tOr One In CaranUJ Relation) 


Vean <n U. S. 


ofChlW 


Ho. 


Us 


6lv<inNah)« 

ttcm 




Given Kama 








Boy '^M Negro? 




Years Otd 


» 


5 





' 


9 


9 


10 


M 


12 


13 


14 15 


^ 


1; 


Mmtlinf 
eiith 


-!!!. 


Fe^ 


Mdr 


»pl Hay 


1 


lelytol 


5] Sep 


Od 


«„■ 


Dae 


BWhday 
























1 














Where V/m 


U.S. 


Gflmany 


Ili'y 


Ru»ta 


Polam) 


Ireland 


Sntlaai) 


En 


In 


d 




Bf»rfl7 


_ 


x-^y 


Sweiiii 


Bohemia 


Cmrals 


tnslria 


PrtDca 


Se. America 


We. 


... 





I* CHILD CnrPPLCD. 



MCNTAttV ttLT 



IN SCHOOL 


P. a. Wo 


LOCATIOM 






PUBUC HLEMCPlTAnV SCHOOL 


p. 8. NO. 








PUBI.IC HlQH SCMOOL 


name 


.. 






PUBUe TRUANT SCHOOL 


MAKE 


... 






FUBUC CVEffiNd School 


P. 3. NO. 








PAROCHIAL SCHOOL 


NAME , 








PRIVATE SCHOOL 


NAME 








Private in9titut!on 


MA ME 








Pup^lC INSTITUTION 


-. NAWG 








OUT Of- SCHOOL 

wAg? Yea Ho 


Wo*lng Row Many Yeere 1 




hia CttM ■ WeHi C«Wta(e? Voi Ho 




Truant 


KEPT AT WeKR-OR BTHOME IU.EOAUT B» PARENTS O 


OTHEr; , ? 






Pm-stcKUr Onaole to ATirfW school 








CAN ChILO read or VnilTE EN01113M J 


¥S= 


NO 





CAH ChuJS RESt? oft WRITE *«•/ LAIHOUAIZE 9 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

In the preparation of this monograph, the Sources have fur- 
nished the largest part of the material, the Secondary Authorities 
being referred to only for codification or historical review. 

Sources 

Files of the Philadelphia " Press." 

Reports of the Chief of the Bureau of Compulsory Education, Phila- 
delphia, 1902-1905. 

Correspondence with the same Bureau, 1 907-1 90S. 

Reports of the Truant Officer of Providence, R. I., 1 907-1 909. 

Reports of the Associate Superintendent in charge of Compulsory 
Education, N. Y. City, 1907-1908. 

Report of the Superintendent of Compulsory Education, Chicago, 1906. 

Bulletin No. 71, of the Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of 
the Census, Estimates of Population. 

Abstract of the 12th U. S. Census, 1900. 

School Laws of all states of the Union. 

Reports of State Superintendents of all states, especially. New Hamp- 
shire, 1908; Pennsylvania, 1907; Rhode Island, 1907; Michigan, 
1907; Nebraska, 1907; Nevada, 1908; Montana, 1908; Wisconsin, 
1908; Washington, 1908; Tennessee, 1907; Connecticut, 1905; 
Oregon, 1909; Ohio, 1907. 

Reports of the City Superintendents of the largest cities of the United 
States, especially, Chicago, 1907; Detroit, 1905; Philadelphia, 1900- 
1908; Kansas City, 1908; Milwaukee, 1907; Springfield, Mass., 1907. 

Correspondence with Chiefs of Bureaus, especially in cities developed 
in the text. 

Session Laws where quoted in the text. 

Report of the Educational Commission, Iowa, 1909. 

Pamphlets and original blanks from Berlin and Solingen, Germany. 

Instruktion iiir die Schulkommissionen hiesiger Residenz, Berlin, 1907. 

Petit Code de I'lnstruction, etc., by A. E. Pichard, Paris, 1883, (Hachette 
et Cie.) 

Report on Accommodation and Attendance in Elementary Schools. 
London County Council, London, England, 1907. 

Ibid., 1909. 

Monthly Bulletin, Statistics Department, Boston, Vol. 10, Nos. 10, 11, 12. 

Secondary Authorities 
Snedden, D. S. and Allen, W. H. School Reports and School Effi- 
ciency, New York, Macmillan, 1908. 
154 



Bibliography 155 

CuBBERLEY, E. P., School Funds and Their Apportionment, Ch. IX., 

Col. Univ. Cont. to Educa., No. 2, 1906. 
Cousin, V., Report on the German School System, 1835, trans, by Sarah 

Austin. 
Schwartz, Emil, Organization und Unterrichtsfolge der stadtischen 

Volkschulen in Deutschland, 1907, Rheinhold Ktihn. 
Petersilie, a., Das Offentliche Unterrichtswesen im Deutschen Reiche, 

Leipzig, C. L. Hirschfield, 1897. 
BocKLER, WiLHELM, Verordnungen betreffend das Volkschulwesen des 

R. B. Potsdam, Breslau, Ferdinand Hirt, 1905. 
Perry, C. C, Report on German Elementary Schools and Training 

Colleges, London, Rivingtons, 1887. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

Note: The writer desires to express his obHgation to the 
following friends that have helped him to secure some of tlie 
sources of information on which the conclusions of his report 
are based : 

Leonard P. Ayres, Henry E. Hein, George Augustus Viereck, 
Edward B. Shallow, Talcott Williams, Louis Nusbaum, George 
Hall, William Thornton, William H. Allen, David S. Snedden, 
Roland P. Faulkner, Amelia Laporte, John F. Reigart, J. F. 
Brown, S. O. Hartwell, George E. Parker, Gilbert E. Whitte- 
more, Minnie F. Whitten, R. Blair, Edward T. Hartman, Martha 
L. Draper, Josephine Esher, Paul S. Atkins, John Rutherford, 
James M. Wilcox, E. Alonzo Casselbey, William F. Laporte. 
W. L. Bodine, Fred S. Hall. 



m 28 191D 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



